


Nightlight

by NuclearPigeonOne



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Pre-season 1 I guess, baby finn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:54:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29111151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NuclearPigeonOne/pseuds/NuclearPigeonOne
Summary: What if it wasn't Joshua or Margret who had found Finn that night? What if it was someone who sacrificed all she had to save the species before her? (One-shot)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Nightlight

A dark oak chair smashes into the wall of Marceline’s living room, shattering into a thousand pieces as she releases a scream of rage. The splinters of old wood rain around the vampire but she doesn't care, her hands snapping up to her tear ridden eyes and rubbing them clear.

“Fucking bastards, the lot them.” She whimpers out, floating over to a CD pile and booting them over, “They always leave me! Everyone always does! There was my mum, then Simon, then the humans, then Bonnie, then Ash! Everyone!” She grabs a ceramic cup, “Always!” She lifts it above her head, “Leaves!” She throws it at the ground with all her strength, “ **Me** !”

The cup smashes with a loud crack, but Marceline was already onto destroying another object within her home. She grabs her axe from its resting place against the wall and swings with all her might at an old picture of her and Ash together that was sitting on a shelf. Its glass shatters and shards fly at her like a shotgun blast, but she didn’t care, watching the now in half-frame and picture flop over.

She pants, venting pure boiling rage. That didn’t make her any happier. She lets go of her axe now stuck in the wall and clutches her head, yanking on her blank hair, “Why am I upset! I’m happy, no,  **glad** I broke up with those douchebags!” She rips her hands away from herself and clenches them, before promptly punching the image of her and Bubblegum. “They were jerks to me! They were nothing but agony to be with! They didn’t care about me! No one ever has!”

She snaps to a drawing given to her by one of the human kids she helped escape, and promptly grabbed it and threw it at the ground, “I don’t want to be back with them! Why would I want to be with anyone who hurt me!?”

She focuses on the next victim of rage, a little drawing she drew when she was a kid, following the instructions of her mother. She had not considered it at the time that it was so her mum could run away from her. She grabs it and throws it, but with it being paper it just folded in the air before gently waving to the floor.

Marceline growls at it, then grabs the handle of her bass axe again before ripping it free, “It’s not like I want to be hurt! So why do I want to be with them all again!?” She plays a few strums on her guitar, “Why?... What is wrong with me?” She looks at the final image on the shelf, a picture she and Simon took together back when they were just trying to survive. Eating decaying junk, cold, and without hope, “Why was I happier back then?” She gently puts the picture face down, then stares at the floor.

She knows what’s wrong with her. She craved the touch of another mortal being, a person.

She was lonely.

“But that’s good for me, right?” She stares at the map her mum made her draw, “Because if I was with anyone else, they would die before my eyes. I would outlive them, no matter what. This pain is better than getting close and losing someone, right?” She continues to gaze at the old drawing. It doesn’t respond with an answer.

She scoffs and looks away, which causes her to focus on her now destroyed room, ‘ _... I probably should take this outside. _ ’ She sheepishly thinks before hurriedly floating out of her door while moving her axe to her back.

An hour later, she was kicking a pebble down a dirt path in the middle of a forest, her hands jammed in the pockets of the jeans she was wearing. The black shirt she was wearing wasn’t doing much to keep the cold away, but she was undead, so it wasn’t exactly like it mattered. She kept her head down, her eyes squinted as she stumbles from one thought to another, ‘ _ Why am I lonely? I’ve got a dog, he should be enough. I’ve got friends. Sure they’re dead ghosts who I met in the underworld, but they’re friends! _ ’ She twists her head up to gaze at the moon, ‘ _ I don’t want intimacy, Ash and Bubblegum showed that path is not one meant for me. _ ’

She huffs, pulling her axe off and moving it into position to play a sombre song, ‘ _... And I have nothing. _ ’ Turns out you need some sort of energy to be in the mood to make music. She taps her foot impatiently, getting frustrated at herself ‘ _... A prank oughta do it. Someone else’s misery will cheer me up. _ ’ She immediately hops into the air with such force that a dust cloud whips up behind her, the vampire shooting through the break in the tree branches above. She grinds to a halt several metres in the air, where she promptly starts spinning around to locate her next victim.

She scans the calm swaying trees below, but no late-night walkers like herself appear. She then brings her hand to her brow and squints as she stares into the distant lands around her. Nothing there either. She bites her lip in annoyance, then glances at the massive mountains she knows are alive. They have to be blocking her view of more land, right? She silently swoops forward, gliding through the air until she meets the massive titans of rock. They were sleeping, causing her to nod and stare at the land she wasn’t able to see before. 

Boom, the village of brawlers. 

She smirks and swoops towards the thatched homes of the fighting men, descending upon them like a dark mist. She stalks the village’s streets, her eyes scanning the homes until she spots the glow of candlelight through one of the home’s windows. With a small giggle of misfortune, she approaches it to investigate, peering inside.

One of the very muscular men was playing with a little doll in a dress next to a candle. She smirks, promptly becoming invisible and clenching her hand. The light goes out, causing the giant man to gasp and stare at it, then grumble in annoyance as he tries to restart the flame.

Marceline crawls through the window, then promptly floats as to remain as quiet as possible. She drifts towards him, the unaware man having his back to her as he finally gets a match going.

The vampire glances to her left and grabs his doll, before holding still in waiting. The muscled brawler finally lights his candle, the flame going steady as he nods in approval, grumbling out, “Stupid wind.” He spins around.

She thrusts the doll in his face while releasing the most demonic screech possible. The muscular man releases a female screech of pure terror, tumbling backwards as his candle hits the floor. He pants, staring at his floating doll silhouetted by both the moonlight shining in from the window and the fire now growing from his candle.

She floats the doll towards him, what causes him to immediately back-peddle as he attempts to crawl away. Then, she lets go of it, letting it drop to the floor. The man stares at it.

She leaps at him becoming visible while doing a vampiric screech, her fangs right in his face. He yells in fear, before passing out, causing Marceline to back off and stare at her work. There was a muscular man on the floor, with peed in pants due to how good the scare prank was.

It was a good prank, so why isn’t she any happier?

She stares for a few more seconds just in case, waiting for some sort of laugh to come barreling out her throat, for cheer to fill her form. Still nothing. She rolls her eyes and spins around, swiftly floating out of the home’s window and into the cold night again, leaving the man behind in the now rapidly spreading fire without care.

' _ Obviously, the prank was a failure, _ ’ she notes while groaning in annoyance, before promptly smacking herself, ‘ _ Get a grip girl, snap out this mood! _ ’ She hovers in the air at a standstill, biting her cheek, ‘ _ … yeah I’m not the best at self pep talks. _ ’ 

She sighs and sticks her hands back into her pockets as she stares down at the trees below, ‘ _ Sunrise won’t be long now. I’ll just sleep this gloom off, I don’t need anyone’s help to get over it. I’m Marceline the Vampire Queen, I go solo through my gigs. I intentionally scare people away! _ ’ She swoops downwards towards the trees below bringing her arms up to her face to protect it as she crashes through the branches. 

She bursts through and glances about, finding herself alone still, to which she shrugs at and moves along, making her way home. Yet, despite her earlier thoughts and excuses, her emotions drag her down like a heavy weight. She sighs and pulls her axe off her back, staring at the instrument, ‘ _ But  _ **_why_ ** _ must I scare everyone away? Why is there nobody who isn’t afraid of me? _ ’

She blushes, ‘ _ Sure, I haven’t been trying to  _ **_not_ ** _ scare people away, but it’s for the best. _ ’ She reasons to herself, trying to plead to her un-beating heart. It does not budge. She huffs, ‘ _ What am I meant to do? It’s- _ ’ 

Suddenly a baby's wail cuts through the air as the vampire jumps, snapping her head in its direction. She stares in shock for a second, then groaning she cups her hands around her mouth, “Hey! Keep your baby quiet!” She then promptly speeds up her floating, muttering to herself, “Jeez, some parents just can’t handle kids, the noisy little brats…” 

She continues on, trying to block the terrible, annoying noise, ‘ _ I’m not even on a jet, why am I having to deal with a screaming kid... _ ’ The screams continue to fill her ears, causing her to groan and put her hands over them in an attempt to block the dreadful noise out.

It doesn't work. No matter what she does, she can't ignore the cries, it was as if they were coming from within her own head. She rips her hands away and screams out, "Will you shut your baby up already! I'm trying to think here!" She screeches, tortured to continue to hear the pathetic screams of the little demon.

Yet, due to its annoyance, it was all she could focus on. That meant she could hear there weren't any adults trying to quieten the child. It meant she could hear there was something… off about the cries. She remains silent, listening a tad longer, before biting her lip and getting curious. She drifts towards it, slithering around the massive trees as she cautiously makes herself invisible.

She reaches a small clearing in which she peers inside. There, a small baby sat atop a large green leaf, wearing a white bear hat. It was rather motionless despite its screaming… its arms weren't flailing about, it wasn't kicking, it was just… screaming.

Marceline raises an eyebrow and gets closer, staring at it a bit more intensely, fears of it being an illusion trap dancing across her mind. It had a smell, one that was quite prominent of faeces as Marceline clamps her nose shut with her fingers, ' _ Ok, not an illusion, illusions can't smell. _ ' She glances about again, scanning the woods they were in. There was no one else in sight. She stares back at the screaming kid and stares in worry, ' _ It is cold, he could be in some serious trouble… _ '

She swiftly rockets upward, breaking through the tree canopy again and having a look around, ‘ _ Perhaps there's a nearby orphanage he escaped from. _ ’ Nothing. Other than the Brawler village, which was currently on fire thanks to her prank, there were no buildings in sight. ‘ _ He couldn't have come from them, they're too far away for a baby to crawl and he looks nothing like them. _ ’ She reasons.

Promptly humming in worry, she slowly floats back down, her gaze dragging downwards until she locks onto the kid again. He was all alone and cold, and his lack of movement was likely proof that it was getting to him. The cries being off was likely a consequence of dehydration as well, which would mean he's been here for a while and no one else has found him.

She sighs, ' _ Damn, the kid is going to die. _ ' She raises an eyebrow, ' _ It looks like a Hyooman child, but I thought those guys were in an underground city called Beautopia. What is it doing this far away?... Something is off. _ ' She shrugs, and begins to awkwardly float away, ' _ Oh well, it's not my problem, I'm no hero. _ ' She fidgets and actually speaks to the baby, "Hate to say it kid, but you're on your own." It turns to stare at her while weakly extending an arm to her, causing her to flinch, "Look kid, I lost my morals a while ago. As bad as it is to say, you're not the first kid I've seen die, I've been through rough times. Life sucks…"

She speeds her departure up, swiftly turning away from the scene before it could get to her. The baby screams even louder though, causing her to flinch again and give it another glance. It was now trying to move its limbs about, to crawl towards her.

In doing so, the baby snags its bear hat on a branch. It tugs on the kid’s hat as the desperate child continues to try and make its way over to her, leading to the article of clothing being pulled off. 

Marceline gasps, stopping her mid-flight get-away as she stares at its neck. “No gills.” She cautiously approaches the baby again as it reaches up for her. Leaning down she grabs it, and carefully lifts it up with both hands, double-checking its neck. “Still no-... it can’t be.” She scans its limp form, the child seemingly let her do what she wants. “No way, that’s impossible.” She stares at the small child in her arms. “You’re a human.”

Immediately her mind goes blank. The night she was transformed, the night she had helped the humans escape the vampire attack. Flashes of her fight fill her mind, the sacrifice she made so her friends could escape. The crew that she had loved to spend time with. Loved. 

She was… different back then. 

She talked to people, heck, she went out of her way to converse with the humans after she had found them. She put her life on the line for them. She didn’t abandon them, she didn’t leave them to die. She… had humanity. She had morals, she showed compassion and care to the people in need.

She’s changed though.

She became a monster from the moment she was bitten. Her immortality had removed her compassion. She had seen thousands die before her, and she no longer cared. She stares at the baby in her hands, ‘ _ What the heck is wrong with me? Have I really gone that far? _ ’ She remembered playing with Simon, then worrying about his health from the crown. She cared for him, but does she care about him now? ‘ _ No, I haven’t really become a monster- lost my morals, right? _ ’ The breakup with Princess Bubblegum flashes through her mind, the public dumping in front of a whole foreign kingdom, ‘ _ Do I really not care anymore? _ ’

She stares at the kid in her arms, the very one she was about to leave to die. ‘ _ I… I am a monster? _ ’ She goes blank again and looks up at the moon, the only time she can go outside. She is a vampire and the daughter to the lord of the night-o-sphere, but she fears it isn’t those parts that are making her act this way. 

“No! Nah ah! I’m not evil, I haven’t forgotten my humanity.” She pleads to the human kid in her arms. It doesn’t respond. She huffs and closes her eyes, ‘ _ How did I not realise what I was becoming? Or… did I notice but did not care? _ ’ She opens her eyes again and stares at the child, glancing at his crotch, “Well mister-” She reaches down for his hat, noticing the name tag within, “... Finn! You’re coming with me.”

The baby cries in joy, and the undead woman swiftly tucks him into her arms to keep him warm, slipping his cute hat back on. ‘ _ I haven’t lost myself, I’m not a monster, and I’ll prove it! I’ll save this kid! _ ’ She reasons at herself. ‘ _ I just have to keep him alive and drop him off at the nearby orphanage, they’ll know what to do with him. _ ’ 

She speeds up, weaving through the trees with Finn in hand as a smile grows on her face, ‘ _ I haven’t become heartless simply because this world repeats itself constantly! _ ’ She glances backwards at the orange glow in the distance from her prank, the town burning that she’s forgotten completely about, ‘ _... That doesn’t count. _ ’

Swiftly turning her embarrassed gaze away from the village she hurries away into the dark woods. She focuses her attention back on Finn in her arms, watching his tiny, chubby arms reach for her face, “Stay there buddy, I’ll get you someplace warm soon.” She then hums and glances up, ‘ _ But where are some orphanages? _ ’ It’s not like she ever wanted a baby, or was expecting to find one laying on the ground stuck to a leaf before. She hasn’t ever looked for one. “... We’re just going to get to my home and stay there for a bit while I look some stuff up, okay?”

He giggles in her delicate hold, but then remains silent again, causing her to hum, ‘ _ Dude must be tuckered out from the cold. _ ’ She glances at her shirt, ‘ _ I am wearing a bra underneath. _ ’ She then remembers the stench of the doodoo that he has as her face twists in disgust, ‘ _ Yeah I’m not giving my shirt to a baby, I don’t want it ruined. Sorry kid. _ ’ She does, at least, speed up a little, hoping the trees around her will protect him from the chill of the wind. 

Then ten men of different types spring out all around her.

Immediately she skids to a halt, staring at the mix of swords, axes, and daggers in their hands. Then promptly bursts into laughter, “Holy cow, are you guys ambushing me!? Oh, this is your unlucky day!” She grins smugly, momentarily taking one hand off Finn to test her grip on him. He ain’t slipping out.

A man taller than the rest and shrouded in darkness chuckles, “You are partly correct. Yes, we’re ambushing you, but no, we’re not having an unlucky day.” He smirks while pulling a pretty well-used axe off his back, unaware of his men around him rolling their eyes. “Now, we want your money, but that shiny axe of yours will do as well, so either pay up or pay in your blood.” He steps up to her, the darkness of night parting to reveal the man.

He was a cat wrapped in damaged white lines of cloth like a mummy, with green piercing eyes, and scars covering every limb. He was definitely not muscular but still fit-ish all around, causing Marceline to laugh, “Pretty bold words, TP man!” She yanks her axe off her back, “But I’m not really scared of peasants like you.”

She hears someone sneaking up behind her. They spring forward, hoping to get their knife to her throat for obvious reasons. She easily evades to the side, letting the man stumble past her a little. Then with a swift kick in the arse, she sends him tumbling to the ground.

He hurriedly spins onto his back and whips a backup knife free from his hip, pointing it towards her. She merely laughs at the man, pointing at him with her bass axe, “Mine’s bigger mate, what must be extra humiliating coming from a lady!” The other men all around her get into attack positions, cautiously approaching her weapons first.

She casually takes note of some of them, a smug smirk on her face as she prepares for a slaughter, ‘ _ Slime, another cat guy, a rock dude… man there’s a real variety. _ ’ A man in shrouding robes rushed her head-on, jumping in the air with his two swords. 

She dashed to her left, letting the man slam where she just was with his weapons. She swiftly kicked his right hand, letting one of his blades fly from his grip. He promptly lashed out at her with his other sword, slashing a huge arc towards her chest. She jumps backwards to evade, only for the large rock dude wielding a two-handed axe to leap at her from behind.

She barely escapes the weapon by darting to the left, using the momentum to spin to face the man. She rears her own axe back and does a heavy swing with all her might. Her vampiric strength makes her weapon slice right through the rock person with such force that when it hits the ground on the other side it flings up a wave of dirt.

His body crumbles into small boulders as Marceline snickers, turning to face the other unfortunate men, “Well, who’s next?” The shrouded man lunges at her again, charging sword first to run her through. 

She throws her axe at him with a yell, letting it slam into his chest as he tumbles to the floor. She darts to her weapon as the other dash in towards her, hoping to exploit her lack of arms.

She however moved much faster than they had expected, almost a blur with the speed she darted to her axe. She rips her weapon free of the corpse and before the bandits could retreat, spun. Her huge heavy weapon slammed into three of her foes, the blade easily going through their bodies like a hot knife through butter.

She uses her momentum to then swing her weapon above her head and slam it down towards an earth elemental. She splits it right in half down the middle while the last three men and leader backed off with a grimace.

She leaves her weapon behind as she darts forward with her arm reared back. It shapeshifts into a humongous claw, what she promptly swung at a cat man with a sword. He hurriedly lifts his weapon defensively, the limb smashing into the blade as her claw rakes it, sparks flying.

The horrid screech of metal being scratched caused the two felines to flinch back, but a crystal person lunged at Marceline. She darts back to evade and promptly becomes invisible. The crystal person blinks before his whole head is shattered by the vampire’s invisible leg.

The leader cat guy bit his tongue before yelling out, “Retreat! Now!” 

The other two men rushed back with him to escape Marceline, who watched with a smirk, “Hey TP man! Use your clothes to wipe yourself because you smell like shit!” Booze, actually. But it still wasn’t pleasant to smell.

She becomes visible again and glances down at Finn in her arm. He had a massive grin. ‘ _ Yeah, he’s ok. _ ’ She spins around to locate her axe, and hurries over to it, yanking it free from the corpse of the earth nymph. She shakes the blood off her weapon as best as she can before putting it on her back, before shooting straight up. Breaking through the tree branches, she swiftly orientates herself before shooting towards home, holding Finn a bit tighter, “Here, we shouldn’t be attacked up here...” She huffs, ‘ _ As if handling a baby isn’t enough of a problem. Oh well, I shouldn’t be seeing those guys again soon. _ ’

The bandits however swiftly bring themselves to a halt, panting as they recover their breath. The leader glances over his shoulder and finds that the woman they had just tried to rob was not following them. He huffs, “Glob, she was stronger than she looked.”

His men, a slime and a cat person, immediately snarled at him, with the feline scowling as he spat out, “Great work, ‘Bandit King’!” He mocked, “You just got us all killed back there!”

The lead feline snapped to face them, growling out, “Yes, because I magically knew she was going to be that strong.” He then went silent, his eyes unfocused, before releasing a sigh, “You know what? I think that was that singer girl, Marceline. The vampire. I didn’t realise it until she was using her powers, the damn darkness made it hard to see.”

The slime throws up his arms, “You’re a cat! You can see in the dark!”

The lead bandit stomped up to the smaller being, “Yeah, but I’m old! My eyesight is going!” He smirks, “But I’m not blind. She was holding a baby, it was why she wasn’t using her other arm.” He flicks his gaze between his men, “You two are younger, more into pop-rock and stuff… is there any news of her having a baby?”

The other feline crosses his arms, “... No, and she never made an announcement of being pregnant either. But, she did break up recently, like a year or two ago. Perhaps that could be the reason why?”

“Good.” Bandit King replied, nodding his head a little, “We… we could use this.”

The slime rolled his eyes, “Another ‘great plan’, sir?”

“Yes actually. She’s obviously been keeping this whole baby situation quiet if she had it a few years back. There has to be a reason or at least a desire why.” He points to them both, “You two, try to sneak to her home and spy a little. If what I just said truly is the case, then we can use it as blackmail. Gold for secrecy.”

The younger cat person raises an eyebrow, “Sir, I think if we went to her and threatened her with blackmail, she’ll kill us.”

“Just shut up and do it!” Snapped the Bandit King, “I won’t let an opportunity back to glory slip past me!”

The slime scowls, “I see sir, this is about your wife, isn’t it?”

Immediately he is sent flying by being kicked by the royal, splattering against a tree before sliding to the ground, leaving a green trail behind him. Bandit King swiftly aims his sword at him, “Shut up! We’ve had nothing but bad runs lately, if we don’t start gaining money soon, we’ll be nothing but jokes!”

The slime bandit rubbed his sore head, glaring at his boss, “Ever stopped to think why your wife and baby daughter are rising in the underworld ranks, sir?” He begins to slide away, the other bandit member swiftly following him to do their new job.

The royal huffs, and glances to the moon above, watching its beautiful form that is framed by waving branches, ‘ _ I’m not irrelevant. And I’ll prove it to them all...’ _

Marceline boots the door to her home open, stepping inside the dark house with an annoyed sigh, "This was not how I expected my walk to go." She grumbles, her attitude reversed on the little bundle of joy in her arms, who releases a soft coo as he attempts to reach for some of her dangling hair. She swiftly moves it away while flipping the lights on, then extends her arms to put him on the floor, "Here you go, little guy-" She stops as she eyes the damage she did earlier, mainly the broken glass from the frames she smashed and the sharp wooden splinters of the chair she threw. "... Hold on." 

She gently tucks him back into her arms before looking up at the ladder to her room, swiftly floating over to it. She ascends, entering her personal space with all her delicate instruments and belongings, causing her to bite her lip, before deciding to risk it. Flicking on the light by her bed, she put him down onto the wooden floor and pointed, "Stay." 

He cocks his head. Then begins to cry, reaching up for her again. Marceline stares, then throws up her arms in anger, shouting at Finn, "I literally just put you down! You can't be glued to me twenty-four seven!" Of course, her yelling only makes his screams even louder, causing the vampire to flinch, ' _ Great work girl, ever the source of pride. _ ' 

Shutting her own mental bullying down, she grabs the crying kid again and holds him, "Look, I'm here, I'm here, please stop…" He eventually quietens down, reverting back to his old, calmer self, cooing in her grip as he tried to snuggle further against her form.

However, the undead woman was more focused on what to do with him, ' _ Dude needs cleaning, food, and a drink. Do babies drink milk still at his age? I don't know. _ ' She looks down at him, "Alright, we'll wash you first because you stink, then we'll decide what else we can do for you." She explains, before muttering, "Hey, if I'm lucky the orphanage will do everything else for me." 

She hurries towards her bathroom with Finn in hand, before skidding to a halt and staring at the white sink, then the delicate kid in her hand, ' _ I can't feel temperature, I'm undead. _ ' She clicks her tongue, "... Alright kid, we're doing this in cool water, I'm not risking boiling you." She promptly begins to bring him out of her arms, though has to take a second to untangle him as he attempts to hold onto her.

She softly plops him into her clean sink, the turns in the warm water, grimacing as she focuses on the worst spot first, "Alright, let's get you off that leaf…" A few gags and a hurry to throw a leaf into the toilet later, his rear was cleaned, causing the rest of the session to go a bit more smoothly. 

As a result, Marceline kinda goes into auto-pilot while her mind drifts elsewhere, ' _ He is a human. They survived. My sacrifice wasn't in vain, it actually helped the humans escape and make a life for themselves. _ ' She blinks, ' _ Do they remember me? What is their kingdom like? Where is their kingdom? Is it a kingdom or a democratically elected society?... Is there still room for someone like me? _ '

She rubs her hand across Finn’s cheek, scrubbing off some mud that was stuck there, “Doubt you can speak, can you?” He farts in the water, laughing at the bubbles, “Yeah, thought so.” ‘ _ Worth a shot, this world is crazy after all. _ ’ She sighs and stares at the boy, ‘ _ Humans… I can’t believe they did it, those crazy bastards. They actually survived. How do I find them? They left on a boat, so I’m guessing they’re at sea… oh! Is their kingdom a massive boat city!? That would be awesome. _ ’ 

She lifts Finn up, staring at him as he blabbers, trying to mimic words, ‘ _ I wonder why they haven’t returned to OOO? Do they not know we exist? Perhaps I will be the first to find them!... I hope my teeth don't scare them. _ ’ She then grimaces, ‘ _ But that would again mean finding them, and I don’t know if I can carry enough red on me before I would find them. So I would have to have a boat with a red cargo supply. And PB is the only one with any good navy. _ ’ She hisses in disgust but ends up scaring Finn as he whimpers, causing her to immediately calm him with a kiss to the forehead.

He returns to his calm self, causing her to sigh, ‘ _ Good, no more crying. But would she  _ **_even_ ** _ let me borrow a boat?... I bet she would if I threatened to tell the Water Kingdom she did it in case she ever needed to attack them. _ ’ She glances down at Finn, finding him in a much better state than what she had first found him in. She nods at her work and lifts him up, swiftly bringing him to a towel to dry, rubbing his form with the cloth, “Alright, next is food and water. Then the orphanage.”

He laughs at her, not understanding anything that was going on as the undead woman brings out her phone. Or well, the tiny creature she crushes in her hand to turn it into her phone, taking a second to drudge up the memory of the current Doctor’s phone number. She calls then sighs as she waits for the princess to answer, until finally she hears a tired voice, “*Yawn* Hello, this is DP, how can I help you this early in the morning?”

Marceline sighs, “The rad vampire Queen here, long story, but what do you give to a baby and where’s the nearest orphanage?” She inquires, watching Finn gumming on the towel he was on, his butt on full display to her.

The royal on the other side remains silent, before finally a much more awake voice came through, “What? Why do you have a baby?”

“I just said it was a long story! Get those stethoscopes out of your ears and listen!” She snaps back, causing the Princess to go quiet again.

“You need to watch your tone. I want to know why you have a baby because I want to know the scenarios and conditions before I give any advice. I didn’t even think vampires could have kids, I thought the only way you could reproduce was through biting- Wait. Did you drink the blood from a baby!?”

Marceline’s eyes go wide, “What!? No! I’m not a monster!” She yells, flustered her eyes going red.

“... Riiight.”

Marceline goes silent, her eyes going back to normal but gain a far-away gaze, ‘ _ Wait. What? Do- do people really think I would- that I would actually do something like that? _ ’

Doctor Princess clears her throat on the other side, getting Marceline's attention as the vampire hurriedly explains, “I found him!” She grabs Finn, tucking him into her arms as he laughs, “I found him in the middle of the forest. He was cold, dehydrated, and hungry, so I brought him with me! Because, you know, I have morals! I’ve still got my humanity!”

“... Mhm” Marceline’s eye twitched. “Look, what condition is he in?”

She glances down at the boy, who was now sucking on her hair, causing her to tug it free from him, “Well, when I found him he wasn’t moving very much, but he seems to be doing better now that he is warm.” She scans his form, “And he’s still got some chub on him.”

She hears a sigh from the other side, “Well, I can’t really do much from here. I want you to bring him to me for a thorough check through. What is he trying to do? Is he trying to suck your nip?”

Marceline blushes but swiftly responds, “No, but he’s been biting things now that I think about it. A towel, my hair…”

“Then he is likely at the stage to eat food.” She hums, “What species is he? Or is he a new one that’s popped up?”

“He’s… that’s not something I want to talk about.”

“... Is he your kid? Truthly.”

Marceline scrunches her face up in confusion, “What? I just said I had found him in the forest.”

“Might have been a cover story from an embarrassed first-time mother, especially if it was unplanned.” There was a break, “But why don’t you want to say what his species is?”

“I just don’t.” Her response earns a groan from the doctor, causing Marceline to snap, “Look! Just tell me what to feed him, then I will bring him to you when I can! Then you can handle everything else, ok?”

“Miss Marceline, I want you to come immediately. I need to check his condition.”

Marceline blinked, “Erh, doc, it’s about to become day. I’d rather not risk burning up, thank you.”

“Then tonight! Bring him tonight! Nine PM would be a good time. For now, give him bread if you have any, maybe some water. If he doesn’t like water then try milk, though he should be weaned off the stuff. If you need more help, risk the sun and ask the orphanage on Parma’s hill since I’m rather busy today.” Marceline nods, grunting in understanding before hanging up. She sighs and glances down at Finn, who remains quiet, staring into her eyes.

She puts the phone down to rub the top of his head, “Alright kid, you’re sticking with me for a few hours.” He laughs, causing her to smile slightly, “How hard could it be?”

“Eat your food!” She yells at Finn with a vampiric rage, who smacks a piece of bread she was giving him. She had got the boy sitting on her bed and had been able to find some bread, but he did not seem interested in actually having it. “Do you want water!?” She passes him a cup of water, which he immediately screamed at and smacked with both hands downwards. The undead woman was able to keep a grip to stop it splashing, but she was not able to keep a grip on her rage.

She pulls everything back and stares at him, putting the cup down before throwing up her arms, “You were starving and dehydrated when I found you, so why aren’t you accepting anything?” He begins to cry again, causing her to groan as the wailing screech of the kid deafens her. She flops her head down, collapsing onto her bed next to the screaming baby as she attempts to suffocate herself in the bed covers.

Her muffled voice comes through, “Come on Finn, just eat something, ok?” His response was to climb atop her head. She swiftly plucks him off and puts him down beside her, the woman rising up to glare into his eyes while muttering, “I’m definitely not having kids in the future.” She grabs a piece of bread again and presents it to him. He coos, looking away to stare at a picture of her in bat form in a poster.

The vampire stands up and sighs, turning away, “Forget it, you’ll eat if you want to. I’m doing my own junk.” She swiftly disappears down her ladder. Then she goes invisible. Floating back up, she watches him, ‘ _ Was it because I was there? _ ’ She watches the baby as he sits there, scratching at his bear hat, before beginning to crawl towards the food. ‘ _ Finally! _ ’ He crawls right over it so he may peer over the edge of the bed, where he promptly begins to tip over.

Marceline shot to him in a blink of an eye, catching him just as he was tumbling off headfirst. She becomes visible lifting him up to her face so she may glare at him. Of course, he only laughs, causing her to sigh, “You're kinda too cute to get annoyed at.” She sits down on her bed, having him lay on his back in her arms as she grabs another piece of bread. She quietly pushes it against his lips, the tiredness clear on her face as she just waits for him to do what she wants him to do.

Finally, he accepts, actually eating the food as a small weary smile appears on her face, “Finally…” She twists her head up as she waits for him to finish chewing, ‘ _ I thought I could do this for a few hours at least… but this is draining. _ ’ She glances down at the makeshift diaper she made for him out of her own shorts. Not the best, but she didn’t exactly have many options, ‘ _ I’m meant to be sleeping right now, the sun is about to come out… but I don’t know if I can do it, I don’t know if I can last to DP’s appointment. _ ’ 

She turns her gaze down to watch Finn again, his admittedly cute chubby face staring back up at her as he finally enjoys his food, accepting any more she gives him, ‘ _... I might go to the orphanage to get some help already. At least a tip or two to deal with this guy. _ ’

She then chuckles, “Funny thing, Finn,” he stares at her, “You’ve so far given me more trouble than ten bandits.” The kid only drools, what dribbles down onto Marceline’s bare arms as she grimaces, but ignores the wet slimy feeling to instead get him more food. Yet, when she reached down for more, Finn promptly rolled out of her arms and landed on her bed.

Marceline groans while reaching for the baby now crawling away, “Hey kid get back here.” He immediately begins to wail the movement she touches him, causing her to growl, “Stop crying! You’re going to eat your food and like it!” She tugs him into her, holding him against her again as she restrains from the adventure he solely wanted to go on. His response was to scream louder, causing her to look up to the roof and count to ten in her head. ‘ _ Glob help me. _ ’

She glances at Finn again, then tries grabbing more food, hoping it will distract him from his desires to see more of her home. The moment she brings it near his mouth though, he immediately pulls his head away and refuses to open it again. “What, you’re not hungry?” He doesn’t respond, only crying some more. ‘ _ Ok, so now what does he want? _ ’ She gives up and begins to lower him to let him go on an adventure, but this time he holds her tightly, ‘ _ Oh, so now you don’t want to see my house!? _ ’ She huffs, ‘ _ I can’t wait to get rid of you. _ ’ 

Then she promptly tries to figure out what’s wrong with the kid, ‘ _ Think, baby just ate, what’s wrong with it? _ ’ She stares as he clings to her, before she lifts him up and puts his head over her shoulder and starts patting his back. He burps. And immediately he goes back to being his quiet self, causing Marceline’s left eye to twitch, ‘ _ All that noise over something so simple- _ ’

He then shits himself in her shorts, laughing at her dead expression with his tongue poking out. ‘...  _ Ok, orphanage time. You’re cute but annoying. I’m not wasting my time and sanity over shit this simple. _ ’

She hurriedly changes him with water and more spare shorts, groaning in disgust while her body also nags at her to sleep. Then, she wanders to her umbrella, whipping it out and nodding in approval as Finn wiggles on her shoulder, “Alright, time to get rid of ya.”

Minutes later, she was shooting through the sky, watching the sunrise approach on the horizon with a drop of worry. She’s flown through the sun thousands of times in her life with her protection, but every time she fears it. She fears the light, ‘ _... like a monster. _ ’ She approaches the orphanage in the distance, an old stone building made shortly after the mushroom war. Of course, it wasn’t always an orphanage, in fact, she remembered people got tortured in there, but she decided not to tell the current owners that. That is if they do accept Finn. If they don’t, well…

She lands outside its old oak doors, blinking as she stares at it, her hand hesitating at the doorknob. She glances down at Finn, who was staring up at her with his cute face, his bright blue eyes shining at her. She gulps and glances at the orphanage doors again, her hand twitching back as her humanity calls, ‘ _ I know I’m annoyed, but is this fair for him? He will be without a parent. I mean, he’s irritating  _ **_at times_ ** _ , but is that worth putting someone in an orphanage for? A single parent is better than none, right? _ ’ She begins to withdraw.

Suddenly the sun begins to rise, burning her shoulder as she yelps in pain. Frantically she rips the door open and rushes inside, slamming the door behind her. She heals with a hiss, cursing herself for not covering her body properly with her umbrella. Her monster side had forced her inside.

She sighs as her wound, and consequently its pain, fully fades away, but then jumps as a woman’s voice calls out to her, “Hello?” The vampire snaps to her right and stares at a woman standing before her. It was a plump lady made up cloths and fabrics, all of which were of an earthly tone. Her mix-match hair of lighter browns and reds went down to her shoulders, and her ‘skin’ was more orange than the rest of her. She wore a long brown dress that went down to her ankles, and with sleeves down to the wrist. The only colour that stood out was the massive white patch on the front, what seemed to be a huge pocket.

Marceline stared for a moment, then coughed as she quickly rose up tall and regained her cool manner, “Hey.” There was a moment of awkward silence, causing Marceline to fidget her gaze away, “So… sorry about bursting in like that. The sun nipped me.” She rolled her hands with a smirk, making sure to flash her fangs, “You know, I’m a vampire and all.” ‘ _ Who knows, I might be able to make her run in fear. _ ’

The woman, however, flicked her hand with a smile, “Oh it’s no problem, just don’t harm anyone and you can stay as long as you like.” She stares at Finn however on her shoulder, “Though what’s with the boy?” 

Marceline’s hand grips him a little tighter as she pulls him into her chest a little further, “I… His name is Finn, and I had found him in the forest. I plan to take him to Doctor Princess later to have him checked over, and if he was good, then bring him here. I mean, I don’t think I can raise a child, they smell  **way** too much!” She jokes, though her eyes drift to the soft carpet floor.

The woman claps her hands together, the sound echoing out in the entrance, “A new possible little sparkle to my sanctuary? Splendid!... Well, not splendid, but, well, you know what I mean.” She rubs the back of her head with a blush growing on her face, before swiftly following up with, “So you brought him here to meet everyone?”

Marceline scrunches her face up in thought, her gaze darting away to her left at the stone brick walls that made the orphanage, “Weeelll… not exactly. But we can do that while we’re here, I guess.”

The cloth woman waved her to come along, the undead swiftly floating by her side as they began to progress deeper into the orphanage, “So if that wasn’t the reason why you came, then what are you doing here?”

“Well, I have to take care of him until tonight. That’s when I won’t be burned up and Doctor Princess will have a free time slot. But, I’m… struggling. I was hoping you might keep him then give him to DP later. If not, then hopefully some quick advice to get him to eat and stuff. Oh, and to stop him trying to consume my hair.” She notes, punctuating it by tugging some out of the kid’s mouth.

The lady smirked, “Yeah, there’s no stopping that. My best suggestion is to try and get him to savagely attack something else.” She blinks, “I just realised I haven’t told who I was.” She turns to her while extending an arm to shake, but then realises Marceline’s hands were full with Finn and her umbrella, “My name is Maia, I’m the head carer of this orphanage. I’ve got two others helping me look after everyone here, but they don’t have as much experience as me.”

Marceline’s smile grew slightly, “Nice to meet ya, Maia. Marceline, the Vampire Queen.”

The carer’s eyes widened, “Oh, I’ve heard of you! You’re some sort of celebrity, aren’t you?”

Marceline smirks, “Yeah, you could say that. Been making music for hundreds of years, I’m getting near my thousand years mark.” She sprouts with pride lacing her work. “Pretty cool, right?”

Maia nods, “Yeah, it is pretty impressive. Wouldn’t have thought someone like you would do this though.”

Marceline snaps her head to her, “What do you mean by that?” She questions demandingly.

The plump cloth lady cringed while putting her hands up defensively. “Oh, er, nothing dear. Just, you know… you don’t have the reputation of being a saint.”

Marceline doesn’t respond, and the carer was wise enough to shut up, allowing the undead girl to turn her head down in thought, ‘ _ Wow. Literally everyone thinks that low of me. That’s something I’ve got to fix… though should I really? I mean, I don’t care. Anyone who dislikes me I’ll simply outlive. Except for PB, but she’s a self-centred dictator. Her opinion doesn’t matter, so my point still remains. _ ’

Marceline quickly shakes her head clear of her thoughts and shifts Finn in her now-tired arm, “Anyways, why did you tell me to follow? You could have told me the tips at the entrance there.” She curiously inquires, her head scanning the large building they were in. Soft carpets, high shelves to keep things out of kids’ reach, grey brick walls, candles to light the building, and dark oak beams for a roof. She would say it was a depressing medieval place to raise children, but not only did she have it worst, but life was also brought to the building with hundreds of kid drawings everywhere.

Maia gestures to a door ahead of the huge corridor they were in, “Because while we talk, Finn here…” She opens it, revealing a room filled with children playing and dancing, colouring and drawing, eating and drinking. “Can meet his new possible friends.” While Marceline takes in the scene before her, the caretaker heads over to her two colleagues, a water nymph and a candy person. The vampire glances down to Finn in her arm, ‘ _ You would definitely like it here, more so than staying with me... should I really leave you here? _ ’

Her musings were cut short by the three caretakers approaching her, the mature leader opening her arms up, “And there he is! Our new possible arrival!” The water nymph and candy woman both immediately melted at the sight of Finn, awwing as they leaned down a little to stare at him. The surrounding kids overhead the announcement as well and all stopped what they were doing to investigate in excited joy. The onslaught of noise causes Finn to cower deeper into Marceline, hugging himself as tightly as he can against her dark clothes.

After all, if he could not see them, then they can’t see him.

The candy person cautiously reaches for him, “Mind if we take him?” 

Marceline glances down at the baby, who continues to snuggle into her, ‘ _ He does seem fond of me. Would it be cruel to strip away his once sense of protection? _ ’ After a moment of hesitation, she takes a deep breath, “... Sure, it would be good for him to meet the others, I won’t be there for him soon. Sooner he makes some new friends, the better.” She very carefully begins to pull him away from her, where the candy helper swoops on in, assisting with a finesse expected from years of working with kids.

Finn immediately begins to cry, causing Marceline to actually flinch and watch him, ‘ _ But why? The little brat was annoying me just a bit ago. _ ’ She continues to observe the baby as he struggles in the carer's motherly grasp, who does everything she can to sedate him. The vampire fidgets, before shooting forward and grabbing Finn in the candy woman’s arm, causing her eyes to widen.

Swiftly the undead rock girl gains a blush and explains, “Erh, he is crying a lot! He’s used to me, so he should quieten down.” The carer was about to refute, but Maia behind Marceline shakes her head with a small, knowing smile. The candy gal lets go of Finn, letting Marceline snatch him up and bring him in close as she stares down at the boy, “There we go, please stop crying.” Once again feeling safe in her grasp, he quietens down, causing the vampire to turn and face the head carer.

The woman smirks and gestures Marceline to follow again, “Let’s get some privacy.” She glances at the children surrounding them, “Go on everyone, back to playing.” With a chorus of groans and moans of disappointment, the kids start to flee the scene, allowing the two adults to stroll away to a corner of the room.

Marceline glanced down at Finn as they walked, staring at his form in her hands with curiosity, ‘ _ Why did I grab you back? _ ’ He promptly reaches up and starts eating her hair again, causing the woman annoyance as she scrunches up her face, “Seriously, do that again and I will leave you here.” He continues to chew and gum, causing her to sigh and ignore him, much to the amusement of Maia.

She turns around to face her just as they reach the corner of the room, “You keep saying that you’ll leave him, but can never do it. I wonder why?”

Marceline blushes, “Shut up.” Swiftly changing the topic, she inquires, “I know I want some tips, but just a quick question.” The head carer cocks her head to the side slightly, causing the vampire to jerk her thumb behind her, towards the candy helper, “Why is she here? PB doesn’t like her toys escaping her, she likes to keep them close to her leash.”

Maia blinks, “... What?” She promptly shakes her head, “I think you might misunderstand, Miss Sugarcane was sent here by her.” The head carer points to a wall to their right, causing a panicked Marceline to snap to face it. Sure enough, on the wall was a poster of Princess Bubblegum, stating how the orphanage had her support. “She is incredibly friendly and regularly comes here-” 

Marceline suddenly jumps into the air floating, “Erhm!... Got to go and quickly! Nice meeting you and all!”

The head carrier rears back in shock, before shaking her head free of her confusion, “B-but, I haven’t given you any tips on how to handle-!”

Marceline begins hurriedly floating away, the panic clear as day on her face, “That’s fine! I’ll figure everything out somehow!” With that she rockets away at full speed, slamming through the doors and straight towards the entrance. Raising her umbrella in preparation, she bursts outside and directly into sunlight, ‘ _ Please tell me she didn’t see me on some camera! I know how she loves placing those things everywhere. _ ’

She hurries home as fast as she can, using her umbrella to protect herself from the now rapidly rising sun. At least Finn was having fun in her arms as they sped over the ground if his excited laughs were anything to go by. His flipped emotions affect the undead girl, who glances down with a slight smile at him, her mood improving slightly, ‘ _ Ah, to the night-o-sphere if she saw us. I’ll beat her pink bubblebutt back with a stick if I need to. _ ’

A few minutes later, she approaches her cave, eying her dark stanky abode with a grin. Rocketing inside, the fear of burning up to sunlight vanishes, causing her to sigh and slow to a halt. She gives Finn a quick check over, before strolling up to her door and swiftly barging in. Of course, she is once again greeted by her earlier destruction, causing her to grimace, ‘ _ Oh right, I need to clean that up still. _ ’

However, she throws her umbrella aside and grips Finn with a second hand, “After I take care of you little guy. You still haven’t drank anything yet.” She knows it was stupid for her to run before she could get the advice, but there was no way she was letting Princess Bubblegum know about the kid in her arms. ‘ _ There’s no telling what she could do to him, _ ’ she reasons to herself, that he was the only reason why she stayed clear of an area the candy woman owned, ‘ _ She could strap him down and experiment on him. Brainwash him, make him her slave for her and her stupid Candy Kingdom! _ ’

She had unknowingly agitated herself to the point of flashing off her teeth, the boy in her harms immediately detecting a disturbance in her attitude. He promptly goes quiet and still, the unusual behaviour snapping Marceline out of her thoughts as she stares at him. She regains her small smile, “Ah, don’t worry dude, I won’t let her get near ya. You’re a brat, but you’re  **my** brat!”

She flicks her attention back to her living room, and sighs, “Better clean this up first then get you a drink. Just in case you decide to do a little wander while I get you some water.” She notes, booping Finn on the nose. His response was to make a noise that could only be described as a baby disappointment, grumbling something while looking away. Marceline laughs and floats him towards the hard coach for him to sit on, “Yeah, I’m starting to get your behaviour now.”

She plants him down, backs off while staring at him, then spins around and floats away. Suddenly she snaps around to face him again, catching him mid act of crawling. With a smug smirk, she points at him, “Stay” He promptly sits down again, his arms crossing as he refuses to look at her. She nods in approval, and returns back to facing her destruction, deciding which mess to deal with first.

She starts with her map drawing, carefully picking it back up and staring at it. With a small smile, she places it back on the shelf, ‘ _ You may have ran from me, but you still did your best to care for me. You didn’t have to fear the monster side of me- wait. Run away from me. _ ’ She turns to face Finn, who was now sucking his toe, “Like I tried to run from you… Dumping you in the orphanage might mess you up as it messed me up.”

She focuses back on the map, ‘ _ Sure, we haven’t had time to bond yet, but we could. I- I should try at least. Just so I don’t make the same mistake mum did. _ ’ She turns her head to face the glass covered floorboards beneath her, ‘ _... and I probably shouldn’t make you being a human such a big thing. If I try to protect you from everyone because they might do things to you, then I might suffocate you. I don’t want a Rapunzel situation! _ ’ She smirks, ‘ _ But I doubt you’ll have long flowing golden hair. _ ’

She begins clearing up the rest of the mess, making sure to take periodic glances at Finn to make sure he stayed where he was. Yet, throughout the whole process, she can’t help but notice something. Despite staring at objects that once brought her pain and anger to the point of obliterating them, she was fine. She no longer felt her emotions tear at her heart. 

Despite the stress and frustration Finn brought, her attitude had improved. Heck when she first met him, she found and admitted the problem of her acting like a monster. And she can’t help but notice the slight smile that would form her face every time she saw how cute the little guy was. She hates to admit it, but having Finn around, even though he is a baby, has already helped her loneliness, among kickstarting other things.

In half an hour, everything was either swept and binned, or put back in their rightful place. She sighs, and hovers over to Finn, “There we go, now you can crawl around without getting hurt.” She punctuates this by picking him up and placing him down onto the ground, watching with a grin as he immediately begins to explore. Though he was doing it sluggishly, causing her to squint in confusion. 

What makes her realise how tired she was, “Whoah, ok… huh, I guess it is a few hours past normal times.” She swoops down to him as he makes his way across the wooden floor, picking him up with a smirk, “Alright, drink then sleepy time.”

With that she took him to her room for the night. Surprisingly, he didn’t complain this time, accepting the water from the bottle she gave him. It was surprisingly… calm for the vampire girl. In a few minutes, she held Finn tight to her as she laid down on the mattress, hoping he doesn’t do too much so she can actually get some shut-eye. 

For some strange reason, she doesn’t have a crib simply lying around for him. How weird of her.

She holds Finn close to her chest and wraps her bed covering over them both, taking a moment to give Finn a bit more. Then closing her eyes she begins to drift off to sleep. Only for Finn’s tiny hand to smack her face as he attempts to crawl out of the person tortilla they had become. Marceline groans and keeps her eyes shut tight, “No… sleep Finn.”

He doesn’t give up and continues to attempt to worm out. She releases a deep huff and plants a hand atop his head, then pulls him back under, holding him tight. He continues to worm against her might, and she does her best to ignore him. Until he smacks her in the eye. She jolts in shock, jumping up and letting go of Finn to instead rub her socket.

Finn takes the opportunity to try and crawl away, but a hand quickly presses down on his back to pin him down. The vampire sighs as she opens her eyes and stares at him, “Alright, you’re not tired.” She glances about, “How did Simon and Mum keep me calm?” She suddenly brightens up, “A book! There was one Simon read to me all the time!” She hurriedly floats from the bed, leaving the boy there as she spins around her room, “But where did I leave it?” She shoots away down the ladder, leaving Finn all alone on her bed.

He swiftly exploits it, his baby mind obviously filled with devious schemes as he begins to crawl towards anything of interest. Which, at the moment was whatever was moving outside the bedroom window.

He approaches it by crawling atop some of Marceline’s stuff, knocking over her lamp. It smashes against the floor, catching the vampire’s attention in the rooms below as she lifts her head from the cardboard box she was in, “What- oh glob damnit, Finn. That better not have been anything important! Every time I turn my back…”

The boy meanwhile was trying to see what was outside. What happened to be the slime bandit spying in. He hums as he stares at the baby, noticing that his deadly guardian wasn’t about and immediately taking the opportunity. He silently gestures to his feline partner in crime to keep an eye out, before focussing back on the window.

He stares at a small broken crack, and applies pressure to it until it breaks, giving him a small opening. Then, using his tiny slime form to his advantage, he slowly funnels himself inside. In ten seconds his body was completely inside and before the baby, who was cocking his head to the side in confusion at what was before him.

The bandit grunts as he grabs Finn and gives him a quick look down, “So, if we’ve been hearing this bitch right, you’re not her kid, and she’s not even planning on keeping you.” The baby makes a noise of discomfort, struggling in the bandit’s grip. He ignores it and continues to look him over, “... But you're still nothing I’ve seen before. Except…” He tugs on the boy’s precious hat, lifting it at the next as Finn gives a small cry. The bandit’s eyes widen, “Well then, this is interesting-” Suddenly Finn wails, crying as loud as he can as the slime person stumbles back in shock.

Marceline’s voice cries up, “Finn!?” The bandit would crap himself if he could, and immediately shot at the window, trying to slip through the hole as fast as he could. He squeezes himself back out like a tube of toothpaste, before falling and landing into his friend’s arms.

They immediately scram, dashing as fast as they can away from the house of the monster. They escape back out into the sunlight, where the slime person swiftly stares at his partner’s face, “Let’s go back to boss. I couldn’t kidnap the boy, but I’ve got some news for him.”

Marceline meanwhile rises back up the ladder with a book in hand, cautiously peeking into her room. She naturally focuses on Finn first as he cries at the window, her eyes hurriedly scanning his form. Upon seeing he wasn’t even scratched, she sighs and rises up completely, floating towards the boy, “Why are you crying now?” She inquires in a calm voice, picking him up to give him a closer look over. He quickly quietens down in her arms, causing her some mild annoyance as she flicks her eyes to the broken lamp. “Glob damnit Finn. Ah forget it, I’ll sort it out in the morning. Let’s just get you to sleep.”

She swiftly carries him the short distance back to her bed, where she sits down in a semi-meditation pose, having Finn in between her legs. He stares up at her as she brings the book down beside him, “Simon used to read it to me when we first met… it helped me get over me not being able to find my mum.” She feels her mind drift off into her darker past, and immediately clears her head clear of it. Instead, she focuses on the small ball of life before her, “Well, it may be a tad over your level, but you're being taught by me! You’re gonna rock this.”

She lifts the cover to turn the first page, a small smile appearing on her face as pleasant memories bubbled in her mind. The cold nights she sat by a fire as Simon read to her… those days seem so far away now, she doesn’t even check up on Simon anymore. “... Well, the story starts in the dead of night~” She begins, pointing at the beautiful painting of the star filled sky in the book.

Finn stares at the pretty image, causing Marceline to grin eagerly as she hurriedly turns the next page, “There was a monster that had terrorised some villages.” The ‘monster’ was a mess of black swirling circles and several tendrils at the bottom left of the double page. In the distance was a small, classic peasant village, its windows lit by warm orange lights within. She flips the page, revealing the monster’s almost featureless face with razor sharp teeth, and an unfortunate farmer’s soul being devoured. “It’s hunger was endless, as was its mischief.”

The next page was of its tentacles flipping animals upside down, breaking objects, scaring villagers from their sleep. “It wanted their souls and their attention. And was willing to go to any length to get them both.”

She stops for a second, then flips the page again, “The villages had enough. They wanted it gone, so they called on a grand hero!” 

Finn’s interest seems to peek at her words, his eyes glued to the frame of the crowd surrounding someone on top of a box. The next image reveals his identity, a man in glorious, bulky white and gold armour, trimmed with arctic fur. He stood nobally, staring at the mountain the poor men, woman, and children pointed at. “They wanted its head, and had paid him to fetch it. ‘It was hideous!’ They cried! ‘It was evil!’ They begged.”

She gives Finn a check up, finding him enrapt in the book, ‘ _ How can he be both hard to satisfy yet so easy to please? _ ’ Shaking her head, she focuses back on the book and turns to the next bit of the story, “So the brave warrior went to find the monster’s cave in the mountains.” After a second of letting Finn stare at the green hills, she turns the page. There, the hero stood casually before the enraged beast, staring it down, “But he did not attack it, instead he talked with it: ‘why do you attack the village?’ He asked.”

“‘Because I must!’ Cried the monster.” She turns the page to reveal it looming over the still peaceful hero, “I have no soul! So I must take them from those evil people!” Marceline grins as she turns the page, watching Finn staring with eagerness. 

The hero’s confused face was there for all to see, “But you do have a soul.” Marceline stops for a second, then continues, “It’s… just... forgotten…” She blinks, then continues on, moving onto the next page. It showed the hero holding the monster’s tendril, “Why did you think you lost your soul?”

She turns the page to find the monster shooting back, “Because I hate everyone! And everyone hates me!” The vampire freezes up, and tempts simply slamming the book shut, but her gaze drifts back to the boy sitting between her legs. She sighs, and continues, “The hero then responded: ‘But I don’t hate you.’” She turns the page to find the hero pointing to the cave exit, “How about we go back to the village together.”

“‘No!’ Screamed the monster.” The vampire stops for a moment as she watches Finn grasp at the page, as if he was trying to grab the monster. She gently pulls the book away from him, then continues onto the next page, revealing the hero on his knees before the monster, “The hero begged to the beast, “‘Hatred leads to hatred, please, break the chain! Be the one to take the first step.’” Marceline raises an eyebrow, then for herself, changes the page.

There, it reveals the monster approaching the village, with the hero before it. “The beast was eventually swayed, and the hero began to lead it towards town.” She turns the page, revealing the frightened villagers talking with the hero, while the dark monster hides as best as it could behind the noble man. “The villagers cried, ‘Why? Why did you bring it here?’ And the hero replied ‘Because it is not evil, just anger brought by loneliness. Give it a chance.’”

She turns the page in haste, knowing there were only two parts left but unbelieving she had forgotten about them. There, it showed the monster playing with the villagers, kids hanging off its tendrils, “... The village met with the beast, and in no time at all warmed up to it. The monster that had terrorised them… had fun.” She turns the final page. There, it showed the beast smiling, “The monster no longer felt the need to suck away their souls. For... it... realised it had its own all along…”

Marceline blinks, then glances down at Finn, finding him a tad sleepy, ‘ _ Did he even understand any of that? _ ’ “I’m guessing forcing you to sit still made you realise how tired you are, huh?” She hurriedly closed the book that dared to make her think, putting it to the side as she stared at the boy. She gained a small smile and wrapped an arm around him, pulling him close to her body as she hoped they could finally rest.

Sure enough, she watches as Finn finally settles down against her, causing her to gain a small smirk, ‘ _ Still so cute. _ ’ She nuzzles her head down a little on top of him, ‘ _ It’s also day now, yet he wants to sleep with me. Already picking up my habits. _ ’ Her breathing slackens and her eyes drift shut. “... Hey Finn, be a hero like the guy in the book, yeah? I know… I know there are people in the world that could use a guy like him.” And with that, she felt the sweet realm of sleep tug at her conscious, before she goes completely lights out.

It wasn’t until several hours later did her eyes flutter as the sleeping beauty awoke. Signalled by her releasing a deep groan and slipping a hand to scratch her butt, before bringing it back up to her face to sniff. She lifts her head with her eyes squinted, staring with bleary-eyed vision at the wall on the other side of her bed. She mumbles aloud, “Why was I sleeping on my bed, I usually float.”

She swings her body to get out her place of slumber, but notices the broken lamp she was about to step on. She freezes up and stares, “What-” The night before flashes into her mind, “Oh right, Finn.” Her eyes snapped as wide as dinner plates, “Oh right, Finn!” She spins around to stare at her bed. Only to find the boy missing. “Eh oh.”

She hurriedly pushes herself up, before scanning about her room in a mild-frantic manner, “Come on you little goblin, where did you go?” She swoops towards her wardrobe and opens the door wide, before promptly screening it thoroughly, shoving boxes aside and lifting tubs. Nothing. ‘ _ He’s not even in the jacket. _ ’ She slams the door shut and takes a deep breath, ‘ _ Alright. He’s got to be around here somewhere. Don’t panic. _ ’

She creeped her gaze towards the ladder, trying to refute what might have happened, before succumbing to her fear. She grimaces as she cautiously approaches, “Oh please tell me you’re not a cracked egg down there.” She gulps, then peers over the edge. It was clear. She releases a pent up sigh that dragged her dread out with it, before she then raises an eyebrow, ‘ _ So where is he? _ ’

That’s when her eyes lock onto a knocked down book stack on the floor below. She immediately floats down the ladder, and sure enough, finds the boy a bit away sitting on the floor, “Oh thank glob!” She cried out, diving towards him, “How in the world did you climb down the-” She stops when she notices him chewing something. Her favourite pick. “No!” Her hands were already at his mouth to yank it free by the end of her exclamation.

She hurriedly looks the pick over, then groans as she finds it completely ruined, cranking her head up to the heavens as she tiredly mutters out, “Oh for Glob sake Finn…” She takes one more glance at the spit covered, corner bent, tooth-marked piece of plastic in her hand, and with a sigh chucks it to the bin to her right.

Finn's gargle of excitement catches her attention again, and she watches him as he crawls away from her, heading straight for the kitchen, ‘ _ Man, I looked away for one second and he’s already moving. He’s definitely going to be explorative in the future, that’s for sure. _ ’ She instantly floats toward him, grabbing the baby by his sides and lifting him up into her chest, smirking down at his confused expression, “Alright dude, there’s got to be a way to keep your bottom planted.”

He begins to fidget, but before he could do anything Marceline had drifted towards the front door, grabbing her keys she kept near it and dangling them above it. “Babies like keys, right?” Immediately he started playing with the shiny things that made a tinging noise, reaching up to swat and grab the keys in her hand. 

She smirks and puts him down on the wooden floor, before floating above him and dangling the silver and gold keys down. Immediately he begins playing with them again as the woman planks in the air, causing her to chuckle, “Man, it’s a shame I still don’t have Hambo with me. I bet you would have loved him.” She notes, finally letting go of the shiny toy in her hand to watch Finn move them about on his lap, watching him at all times to make sure he doesn’t try to eat them.

Yet, as she stared, she couldn’t help but feel her heart thump a little. The one that had stopped oh so long ago, a feeling so unnatural that she almost grasped at her chest in confusion. She can’t help but laugh a little, “Man, you’re cute… I might just keep-...” She goes silent, her thoughts tumbling back to what the head carer had said back in the orphanage. ‘ _ I am having trouble getting rid of ya. _ ’

She watches him laugh on her floor, ‘ _ But why? I’m not a squealing teengirl, it’s not only because you're adorable. _ ’ She picks him up, glancing at the time. It was getting near Doctor Princess’s appointment. She flicks her focus back onto Finn and hesitates, “W-well dude…” She holds her breath, her words getting stuck in her throat, before releasing a deep huff, “I can’t. You're like me. Alone. The last of your kind, probably. Yet, you're also nothing like me.”

Her hand lays on his chest, “You have a pulse, you’re alive. You have a smile on your face despite being alone like me.” She tickles him, causing Finn to wiggle in her sure grip as he releases a high pitched laughter. Her facial muscles tighten as her lips curl up into a grin, “We’re both by ourselves in this world, why not do it together? There’s no one else for us, nobody who will help us, except each other. I saved you in that forest, you helped me realise some things about me I didn’t even realise I was suffering from for so long.” 

She kisses him on the head, “Like, I don’t think I became a monster because I was immortal or because I was bitten. I think it was because I didn’t do anything about mine or others’ problems. I have seen many things, Finn, and it made me numb. I just started shrugging everything off in life and letting things play out. It was as if I actually died when I became a vampire, I didn’t affect the world anymore. You, however, have been using every opportunity I turn my back to explore. That's what humans do, we explore and interact with everything, even if it hurts us."

She rubs his head, "I bet if you found a baby then you would have instantly helped, you wouldn't have left life to play out like I nearly did. I forgot my humanity, and it shows." She softly shakes her head, "But not anymore. Come on, once I find you a loving family then I'll make sure to hang out a lot. We can be a kickass duo in whatever we end up doing.”

She rights herself up and begins drifting towards the door, pulling Finn in close to hold him over her shoulder, “Let’s go to see little miss prissy. I’m sure she’ll give you the a-ok since you’re awesome like that." She glances at the cooing ball of joy on her shoulder, "Besides, if I don't find you a family, I might take you in myself…" She mumbles to herself as her thoughts begin to drift to possibilities, causing her to brainlessly float into the door to leave her house. "Ow."

Meanwhile, the slime and cat bandit sprints across the leaf-covered ground of the forest, carefully watching the night sky above in case the vampire descends upon them. They abruptly skid to a halt and look around, screening the forest for any sign of life or followers. Nothing. They cautiously walk forward towards a split rock face of a nearby mountain, before the cat raises a hand to his mouth and releases a whistle in a pattern. Then they proceeded deeper into the crack, eyeing the fortification that was now coming into view. The gate was open and the guards were relaxed, one of which being a flame elemental who nods at the duo, "Took your time. Thought the undead girl got to ya."

They shake their heads, the slime grumbling to the fire boy, "No, but she got to the others. We have some news for the boss though."

The guard shakes his head, "I heard of the slaughter. Between you and me, the boss has become an idiot with his old age."

They both grunt in agreement and head further inside the base, eyeing the two large ballistas that guarded the bandit base. The whole place was hidden within a massive open cave system inside the mountain, using torches to keep the place lit and wooden planks to help make buildings. How the torch's smoke escaped the base they had no idea. But if the place worked, it worked. The constant grey walls were getting to them on the moral side, what only worsened when the gold they used to distract themselves with is now completely drained away.

They followed a snake path of small pathways until they reached a humongous main chamber. The boss's throne room. It had to be the size of a large football stadium, with what remains of the bandit's gold supply scattered around in small piles. The roof was completely covered in stalactites, while only a few stalagmites sat as a thin ring around the edge of the oddly shaped room. At the far end sat a rise in the floor level with three steps carved into it, and on that rise sat the Bandit King and his tattered throne. Next to it was a chest surrounded by a massive gold pile, with a picture frame on top. 

The cat royal was sitting there, staring longingly at the picture of his family before the split. His daughter looked so much like her mother, but he could see a hint or two of him in her. He sighs, "She would have grown up to be such a fine Bandit Princess."

His two minions scowl at him, the slime man chuckling, "And she will be. Remember, it's who claims the title as Bandit King who owns it. If she comes to you for her title, and you don't have the money or the power to stop her-"

He casually raises his hand to stop them, "Then I would not mind. I would actually quite like it if my daughter claimed my title." He shakes his head, "But that's the future, let's focus on now. What did you learn about Marceline and her baby?"

The feline bandit rolled his hand, "Yeah, a thing or two. From what we saw and heard from spying on her is that she doesn't even want the squirt. She had found it in the forest we ambushed her in and was planning to pawn him off at some orphanage, but something went wrong because she left like a bat out of hell."

The Bandit King slouched, "So we can't bribe her? Great, that's another plan gone…" He mumbled in clear disappointment, staring down at his feet.

The slime coughs to catch his attention, then promptly adds, "But, I was able to get close to the kid at one point. It's a human baby."

The royal blinks. "... What?" He pushes himself up from his seat and begins walking towards the slime, "Are you an idiot, they died out hundreds of years ago. You must be mistaken."

He shakes his head, "No, sir. I gave him a full look over. He's a human. Probably why she was able to find him, you know, a human, a vampire…" He rolls his hand, causing the King to growl in disgust.

"Yeah, she's a monster alright. Didn't think she had the soul to spare somebody though, I'd thought she would go as far to kill a baby to sate her desires." He forgets about the ageless beast, "But a human, eh?..." He says slowly as if he was tasting the words.

The slime nods, "Yeah, so I think the bribe thing still works. Just on a different woman." He smirks, "That candy girl, Princess Bubblebutt, she would pay a lot to get her hands on him I would imagine."

His cat teammate eagerly nods, "Hey, yeah! That could work! Since that monster doesn't want him, we could just ask to take care of him, she'll give him over no trouble, and we can immediately sell him for some nice dosh!” He excitedly schemed, practically drooling at the gold they could practically swim in.

The leader himself however groans as he plays with the idea in his mind, “Perhaps…” His gaze drifts over to his picture frame, “Or-”

The slime huffs, “Oh boy, here it comes.”

The royal ignores him, “We could keep the human. I mean, think about it.” He points at his throne, “I’ve sat on that throne for a long time, and there’s a reason for that. I think of the long game.” He spins around to face them, “If we sold him off, yes we could get a lot of gold, but…”

He reaches into his gold pile and pulls out a child’s wooden sword that he had trained his daughter with, “Imagine if we made him one of us. He’s a human, it seems to be in their nature to be fighters if history says anything.” He turns to face them, “If he turns out to be a deadly weapon, we can use him to do hundreds of raids. We would earn way more money than if we just sell him.”

The cat bandit lifts a hand to his forehead, giving it a rub to soothe his pain, “Sir, what you’re saying is a very stupid plan. Like, we have no idea if the kid would be good at combat, you just did a racial stereotype. Or if he does turn out deadly, would he even follow our orders? Last thing we need is a ‘weapon’ that doesn’t think it should be led around by weaker beings anymore and cutting us all down.” He scowls at his boss, “Sir, you’re just acting like this because your horned wife left with your horned daughter. Heck, I’m surprised you care about her, she looks nothing like!”

The Bandit King growled, “She has my teeth and eyes!” He releases a deep breath from his nose, “But I’m the leader here. While your concerns are noted, we shall go ahead with my plan. I will return us to glory.”

The slime person slid forward, “Yeah, what selling him would do! In a week instead of in eighteen years! Do you know how loaded that pink woman is? Sir. We. Need. The. Money. Now. If we don’t, we’ll collapse, let alone if we have enough gold to raise a kid at the same time.”

The Bandit King turns around and walks away, giving a dismissive gesture to the duo. They huff behind him, flicking their attention to one another as the slime mutterded, “I think we should just leave…”

They hear a loud bang where the royal was, both of them snapping their gaze to the King. He was glaring at them, “Cat ears.” The bandits flinch. “Get out.” They hurriedly did so, leaving the royal to sigh, ‘ _ I will get this kid. He will be a mighty bandit that will strike fear into the hearts of the people and the minds of the princesses. I will get him, even if I have to pry him from Marceline the monster’s hands... _ ’

The Queen of Vampires releases a whoop as she swooped through the night sky, holding a laughing Finn in her hands. He was flailing his arms about as she swung them about just beneath the clouds, the undead girl releasing a chuckle at his joy. She promptly dropped downwards so that she may throw him upwards into the air, the baby squealing in excitement as he arced through the air.

She smirked, waited for a second for him to start to fall, before rocketing towards him, snatching him out of the air like a hawk. He releases another choir of laughs as he wiggles in her arms, causing her to do it again. She had been doing it the entire time she’s been travelling towards the Candy Kingdom for the appointment. He has not once been scared of it, not even the first time she threw him.

She doesn’t know if that’s because he’s fearless or dumb.

Though she couldn’t say she wasn’t afraid. After all, she was going to  **her** kingdom. She had teased with the idea of going in invisible, but Finn wouldn’t be invisible. She won’t make him a target for her own safety. She’ll get in as quick and quiet as possible. ' _ DP better not take her sweet time either. I'm most probably already being watched by Bonnie's cameras. Wonder what she'll do… _ '

The time to ponder what the candy dictator could do to her was over however, as in the distance sat the kingdom itself. She rapidly approaches it, swooping in high from the sky as her eyes constantly flicking to the Gumball Guardians sitting peacefully atop the pink walls. They don't react to her. She releases a deep sigh and soars towards the main castle, eyeing a window with a light on, ' _ That's in the medical ward. _ '

She slowly brings herself to a halt, gracefully stopping just before the window with Finn tuckered in her arms. She takes one last glance about in case she was about to be attacked by Bonnie, before peering inside the room for safety. Standard doctor room, with the medical princess herself sorting out instruments inside. Marceline turns her gaze to Finn to give him one final longing look, before raising a hand and knocking on the window. Immediately the royal inside jumps in shock, slipping over and falling onto her rear in a calamity of a racket. Marceline winces and gives an apologetic look to the hateful glare she was receiving.

Regardless, she watches as Doctor Princess picks herself up and brushes her clothes off, before storming her way to the window. In less than a second it took for her to open it, Marceline darts inside so fast she was a blur, leaving the other royal blinking in shock.

She quickly recovers, shaking the shock from her head to close the window and keep the night chill out. She faces the vampire who was glancing about the room and raises an eyebrow, “You seem nervous.”

Her remark earns a sigh from Marceline, “Yeah, don’t want to meet Bonnie. She’s a nuts dictator who has no moral boundaries.” She releases a deep sigh and turns to face Doctor Princess, revealing Finn to her, “Don’t want her experimenting on him or anything.”

The royal immediately swoons, “Awe, he’s so cute!” She raises an eyebrow to glance at Marceline, “But I think you’re a tad paranoid. There’s no reason for her to do anything to some random kid.”

Marceline snaps her head about the room wearily, before slipping a hand to Finn’s hat and pulling it up, revealing his neck. Doctor Princess squints, “... What am I supposed to be looking at here? I don’t see any vampire bites, so-”

“No!” Marceline hisses, glaring at the other royal in annoyance, “He’s…” She sighs as she vents her fears before leaning down to whisper, “He’s a human.”

Doctor Princess blinks, her eyes a void as she stares at the gently moving boy in her arms, before her mind returns as pushes her glasses up, “O-oh, that I was not expecting.” She pushes her glasses up just as they slip down a little, “Sorry about that, you kinda surprised me there.” She hums as Marceline pulls her head back, “Though that would kinda explain why you were able to sniff him out in the woods. You know, you being a vampire, him a human, your instincts-”

Marceline scowls, shooting forward to put her face to face with the now scared royal, “I did not smell him out like, like, like some animal! I did not hunt him!” She grabs the royal’s collar, “So stop treating me as a monster, or am I going to have to slam you into the wall?” Suddenly Finn whimpered in her arms, releasing a small cry.

Immediately Marceline pulls back to check up on him, eyes full of worry as she scans his wiggling form. She bounces him a little, and he quickly calms down, quickly returning to his gleeful self.

Doctor Princess smirks slightly, though with annoyance fixes her ruffed up clothes again, “You seem surprisingly close to him. And he is to you too.”

Marceline blushes, “Shut up! Just,” her eyes refuse to look at the royal, “Look him over and make sure he is ok,” her voice quietens, turning into a mumble, “so you can send him away...”

The royal raises an eyebrow with a slight smirk as she reaches forward and gently grabs Finn. He struggled slightly, his tiny hands grabbing a hold of Marceline’s shirt while releasing a small squeal. The undead girl however softly helps the doctor, holding Finn’s palm as the royal takes him away from her.

Doctor Princess’s smile grows as she bounces the baby in her arms, “You sure do seem to like him.” The vampire doesn’t respond, though her blush blossoms even more on her grey cheek as she wearily watches Doctor Princess put Finn down on to a table. “Though you probably shouldn't hold him so much. He should be crawling and exploring at this stage, not wrapped up like a week year old. But I know how dangerous OOO is, and how unprepared you were for this little guy~” She remarks while playing with Finn’s toes, causing him to laugh.

She swiftly changes mood however, going into work mode as she begins checking his body over for anything wrong. She prods every part of him, opening his mouth to peer inside at his teeth still growing in, spreading his eyes open to check his pupils’ reactions. All the while Marceline hovered close by like a nervous mother bird, even getting so close as to annoy the doctor a few times.

When she accidentally nudged the royal’s left arm as she listened to his heart, Doctor Princess sighed and closed her eyes, before inquiring with a smirk, “He’ll be back to you in a minute, Miss mother Marceline.”

Marceline jerks back in shock as she stares at DP, “I- erh, no, I don’t…” She mumbles off into a groan, causing the royal to give a knowing laugh at her.

True to the royal’s words, in only another ten minutes the check up was done, and Doctor Princess was handing him back to her, “Alright, he seems surprisingly healthy. The only thing to note is some problems caused by hunger and dehydration, but you should have that under control in no time.”

Marceline stares for a second while passively playing with Finn, “Wait. What do you mean by ‘I’ will have it under control? I thought we were going to give him to an orphanage?”

Doctor Princess smiled, “Yeah, you did say that, but I think anyone can see that you’ve grown a bond to him.” Marceline turns her gaze away as a blush formed on her cheek, causing the royal to nod smugly, “Mhm, thought so. Think about it, this is, what, only a day with him?”

Marceline suddenly snaps back to her, “Yeah, but I don’t have anything to raise a baby with!” She huffs and tucks him a little closer into her chest, “Besides, this could all be a novelty of me discovering him. I might get bored after, like, a week, and end up dumping him somewhere. I don’t want to do that to him.”

A laugh escapes Doctor Princess, “Can I point something out?” The vampire cocks her head in confusion. “In both points you just said, you were caring more about his safety and well being than yourself or your stuff.” She put a hand on her hip while pointing the other at Marceline, “You would be a good mother, especially for him.” This time it was the doctor’s turn to be curious, “So why are you afraid to take care of him?”

Marceline stares at her like she was an idiot, “... Because I’m not prepared to be a mum, I did not want to be mum, and I am all by myself what would make me a single mum.” She points with a slight glare, “That does not sound like me, I’m a carefree immortal, I can’t handle stress.”

The doctor releases a worried groan as she puts her hand to her chin while staring at the floor, “Good points.” She then presents both hands to the woman, “Then hand him over.” Marceline doesn’t move, fidgeting nervously while flicking her gaze between Finn and the floor. “Thought so.”

“No, look, erh…” She flicks her eyes about to try and find an escape, ‘ _ Why was that carer lady right, why can’t I give him away? _ ’

“Come on,” Doctor Princess raises an eyebrow, “You just said how bad it would be for you to keep him, so why won’t you hand him over?” 

Marceline frantically flicks her gaze about for an excuse before locking onto some candy mixture that the doctor uses to treat Bubblegum’s people. “Don’t you remember what I said!? I don’t want Miss Dictator upstairs finding out about him. Orphanages will have to write down that he is a human on their forms, or his new parents could blabber all about him!” She shakes her head as she continues, “You seem pretty ignorant doc, PB has no bounds. She’s in every country’s computer, she’s got cameras everywhere, she has spies planted. The moment he gets put anywhere that’s not secretive she’ll know about him. And I don’t want her or her scalpels within ten miles of Finn.”

Doctor Princess hums, “I see…” She glances at her books of anatomy, reading the species, “What about the Fire Kingdom? She would have a hard time getting camera’s in there in the first place, and-”

“She has cameras there.” Marceline cuts her off bluntly, “Not only that, but Finn could be burnt to a crisp if someone doesn’t refresh his flame shield.”

Finally, the medic rests her hand on her hips with a smile, “Well then, I guess you're keeping him.” 

Marceline nervously nods, “I mean, I guess I  **have** to, but… I’m not sure it’s best for him.” She admits while nodding down to Finn wiggling in her arms. “I have nothing for him and I have no gold to get anything. Plus, I still have no idea how to raise a kid.”

The doctor sighs at her, “Alright, here’s the deal.” Marceline leans forward to listen more intensely, “You hold onto him for now while I search for someone who Princess Bubblegum is not only not spying on, but also willing to raise a kid. You can give me a call whenever to say you're keeping him permanently.”

Marceline bites her lip, “That sounds… fair, actually.” She tightens her grip on the struggling Finn, who was reaching out for something, “I can probably raise him for a short while, he’s definitely cute enough.”

Doctor Princess smirks and opens her mouth to say something when she focuses back on Finn, “Ah don’t touch that!” Marceline turns her head down to find him reaching for an expensive looking set of glass beakers at the edge of a cupboard. She tugs him away, causing the other royal to sigh, “Alright, how about we put him in the play pen? Could distract this energy filled little guy while I tell you how to take care of him.”

Marceline sweats a little, holding Finn a little tighter, “I don’t really want him out of sight, not here at least. PB could snatch him while I’m not looking.” She explains, then grunting as Finn turns his attention to her hair again, tugging on the black strands.

The doctor rolls her eyes, “I’ll literally be putting him next door. We’ll hear if she tries anything.” Marceline flicks her eyes down at the boy as he begins chewing and slobbering on her hair, gargling baby noises as he stares right back. She switches her attention back to Doctor Princess and nervously nods, handing him back to her.

The royal swiftly but gently grabs him, before hurriedly strolling away with him, the undead girl silently following her. She watches intensely as Finn is brought next door into an empty play area, filled with toys. She does a hurried sweep of the room with her eyes, and upon spotting no obvious cameras that PB could be watching him from, she nods and backs away.

She then focuses back on Doctor Princess who was staring at her smugly, causing a growl to rumble out of her throat, “Oh shut up.” Her grin only gets larger, “Yeah, I like the kid. Yeah, I’m paranoid about Bubblegum. Big deal. Now just tell me what I need to know to raise him.”

She shakes her head and gestures to her to follow, “Come on. I have some diagrams and stuff to help you.” The vampire instantly follows her back into the doctor’s room with a serious expression.

Finn meanwhile glances about his new environment. Everything smells… sweet. He immediately begins crawling around on the soft fabric floor, eying the tall candy walls surrounding him. He gives one a lick, before his eyes widened at the taste of sugar, immediately beginning to lap away at the wall with a bundle of giggles.

That was of course until a cold breeze swept over him. He shivered and looked around for Marceline to snuggle with. She still was gone. He begins to push himself to his feet and take a wobbly step forward, before flopping over onto his face. He uncaringly lifted his head up and began to crawl towards the room’s entrance, discovering it to be a plastic gate. A child proof one. His eyes squint at the challenge, and attempts to shake it with all his baby might. It barely budges.

He releases a cute grunt of annoyance, before looking around for a solution to his problem. He eyes a box about his size, if he was standing up, stuffed full with candy toys, and with an excited squeal crawls his way towards it. He lunges for the lip and pulls himself up a little, peering inside for something that could help him unlock the gate.

Just random toys. He gargles, drooling slightly into the box before glancing at the annoying barricade again. It wasn’t that tall. He begins pulling as many toys out, throwing them out behind him to bounce on the carpet. He continued until his baby arms could reach no more, before tumbling backwards from the box with a happy laugh. He falls over, hitting himself head first onto the ground, but rights himself completely unfazed.

He waddles over to the first toy in his adventure, grabbing a toy car as big as his arm. Then he makes his way to the gate with it in hand, plopping it down hard just before it. He cautiously climbs atop it and brings his arms up to grab the top of the fence gate. It was of course still too high for him to reach. He releases a whimper as tears threaten to spill, but he hears Marceline’s sweet voice in the other room.

With determination re-stroked within his heart, he begins looking around for something taller. Nothing. But he still had all the toys he flung out strewn about everywhere. He hurriedly begins collecting them all and plopping them at the gate, swiftly growing a pile.

By the time he’s finished, every toy in the room was piled up against his bothersome problem, creating a climbable path. Wasting no time, he scales up to the top and reaches up, this time grabbing the top of the gate. With an excited giggle for celebration, he lifts himself over, before promptly tumbling over head first.

He flips in the air before landing on his butt on the ground, where he promptly looks around at surroundings. Marceline speaks up again next door, causing him to shift to his knees to crawl to her, but then he spots something in the corridor he was in. A candy drop man walking away with a bunch of red animal balloons floating in hand. Finn coos, laughing as his objective changes and he immediately begins hunting the worker down as the living food progresses around a corner.

The baby follows, and stares at him in a main massive room that ended with a pink, candy throne. Luckily, its royal owner was not currently sitting in it. The living food that held the balloons stops to hand one to a kid and his mother, who immediately thank him and walk away.

Finn’s eyes widen in wonder as he stares at the animal-shaped objects, and begins to rush towards the gum drop. In a matter of seconds, he arrives at the merchant and promptly grabs his leg with a huge smile.

The living food jolts completely still at his touch as if he was a statue, before slowly and cautiously turning his gaze down to him.

Finn laughs at him.

He yells, “What the Glob!?” Immediately he shakes his leg to throw the baby off, who only laughs even louder. The loud noise attracts the attention of the cameras hidden in the hall, who all snap to face and analyse Finn. And present the footage to an observant pink woman in her lab.

Marceline exits the doctor’s room with a bag of diapers in hand, her head turned behind her to face Doctor Princess as she continued to explain some things, “... and remember, be prepared to be puked up on. A lot.” 

The vampire nods while shivering in disgust, what shifts into her shuffling uncomfortably, twiddling her thumbs together, “Thanks for all this. I wasn't really sure who else to turn to.”

The royal nods in understanding, “It's fine, it saves me from any future work of having to do an operation on him because you messed something up. It’s better you understand now.” She hesitates, “But honestly, you might still want him checked out by Bubblegum,” Marceline’s eyes widen but Doctor Princess outs a finger to her mouth to silence her before she could voice her concern, “She is pretty knowledgeable and she has raised the entire Candy Kingdom, she honestly knows more about raising stuff than I do.”

The vampire pulls her head back away from the woman’s digit, “B-but, I… ah!” She slaps her hands to her face, “I know I have to see her again but I would so much rather not…” She mumbles off, causing Doctor Princess to raise an eyebrow.

She cautiously leans forward, her eyes squinting, “... There’s a history between you two, isn’t there? An intimate one?”

Marceline lowers her hands, glaring at the royal, “If you tell anyone, your blood will be missing from your body that very night.”

Doctor Princess lifts her hands up defensively, “Ok, ok. Right, that makes things make a bit more sense.” She then softly follows up with, “But you might have to put that past you. For Finn’s sake.”

Marceline remains silent for a second, trying to find the words before turning her head away with a blush burning her cheeks, “I’ll think about it.”

The royal slaps her hands on the vampire’s shoulders, “No if it involves a baby ever, you need to put the past behind you. You  **need** to see her.”

Marceline swats the hands off, “I said I will think about it!”

The doctor squints and points accusingly, “Will you though? Your years of history shows you don’t really think about your actions.”

“I do!” The undead woman exclaims, her blush worsening, “But… well, I never, like, actually cared about anything in a long time.” She takes a breath, “But that was because I never cared enough to focus on something. I just do something and forget it, like the whole world to me is a passing thought.” Doctor Princess opens her mouth but the vampire cuts her off, “With Finn, I’ll have to focus, I get that. I know what I’m up for, I get the responsibility. If I mess up a little bit, then I donk him up  **real** bad.”

She fidgets, her gaze turning to the ceiling, “That’s honestly a bit stressful, especially since I’ll be doing it solo. I know first hand what it can do to a child. But he will keep me grounded.” She actually laughs a little, “I mean, if I drift off then his screams will certainly snap me back to reality. He’s got a mouth alright.” 

She glances back at Doctor Princess, who is now waiting silently, “... I can no longer kid around anymore, it’s time I focus again.” She blinks, “What makes me realise I forgot about Finn.” She turns to look next door but Doctor Princess puts her hand on her shoulder to stop her.

She smiles at her, “I’m all for you growing up a little, but it sounds like you’re about to throw all your happiness away. Don’t. You can still be a fun seeker, just don’t be an ass about it.” She flicks her eyes away, “ Though you’re right, you kinda forget about Finn. Come on, let’s grab him and take him to PB. And… well, try to talk to her. The wound between you two won’t heal until one of you takes the first step. This is a good opportunity.”

Marceline takes a deep breath, “Okay. Let’s… let’s take him to PB.” She suddenly lunges face to face with Doctor Princess, “Though the moment she looks like she’s going to experiment on him, I’m ripping her fat brain out of her head, got it?” The royal nods, causing the vampire to sigh before making her way to the playroom door as sweat begins to form, “W-well, I might as well do this on my own terms then, with me giving him to her so I can explain what she can’t do. The longer we're chinwag here, the larger the chance she has to kidnap Finn-” She turns to face the children’s room they had put him in.

It was empty.

Her undead heart crumbled within itself as dread crushes her gut, “Oh no.” She glares at Doctor Princess, “See! I told you she was a dictator! Even kidnapping kids isn’t too far for her-” Her eyes land on the pile of toys at the gate, a blush forming, “... Oh. Ok, he escaped, she didn’t grab him somehow.”

The medical royal meanwhile whistles at the baby’s work, “Man, that kid would make a great explorer.” She flicks her attention back to Marceline who was scowling in annoyance at her. Doctor Princess immediately put her hands up, “Erh, how about instead of killing me, you go find him?” She suggests with a nervous laugh.

Marceline snaps back, “I know! He’s probably been spotted by her by now! Glob, what if she already got him!?” She shoots off in the opposite direction of the main hall, her eyes snapping to the many rooms for her little trouble maker.

Finn meanwhile laughs as he climbs atop the back of the candy person, desperately reaching for the balloon animals. The gum drop tries to grab him but discovers the baby in an awkward position, causing him to attempt to shake him off. It does nothing but wreck his balance, causing him to stumble with the wiggling weight attached to him.

With a yell of shock he falls face forward, slamming into the ground while Finn laughs giggly. He crawls over his triumphed foe, reaching for the balloons still in his hand. Then the sound of police sirens from a mouth fill his ears.

He twists his head to the side to curiously watch as three banana guards come sliding out from a door. But the third one slips, wiping them all out feet-first. They all groan in pain as Finn sits atop his brutally destroyed victim, watching them with no real fear.

They hurriedly pick themselves up and the leader points at him, “Get him!” They all yell war cries as they wave their spears above their head. Finn coos and crawls his way towards them, finding their weapon’s shiny appearance funny. They all immediately skid to a halt, one of them blubbering out, “Erh, guys, he isn’t afraid! Oh Gob! We’re going to die!” 

Their resolve shattered like glass and they ran in any direction while releasing pathetic screams of terror. Finn laughs at the funny yellow things running around. Obviously, the demon took great delight in the diabolic fear it was able to strike in the heart of mortals, feasting on their delectable shrieks.

He hears movement behind him and turns around to find the balloon man running from the scene. The baby promptly crawls after him, watching as he and his shiny balloons disappear through two massive doors. He pushes his tiny body against them, but it barely budges. He sniffles, squealing slightly as he tries again. Still no luck. 

Then Peppermint Butler walked in through them, “What on OOO is causing all this rack-”

He promptly shuts up as Finn crawls past his legs, the stunned candy staring at him as Finn merrily makes his way after the gum drop. He is at the end of the hall, grumbling as he brushes the dirt off his clothes before beginning to make his way home. Just as he opens the main gate to leave the castle, Finn grabs his leg again, causing the candy person to freeze up.

He looks down at the baby, just in time to see the curious human bite his sweet form.

Marceline was swooping around the castle invisible, sweeping through every room for Finn. Then an incredibly loud scream echoes throughout the castle. She skids to a halt in the air, snaps her head towards the source, before rocketing towards it at full speed.

Finn meanwhile laughed as chaos ruled the streets of the Candy Kingdom. The panic of the balloon man plus the guards screaming about a ‘candy-eating monster’ has sent everyone into a flurry. The living pieces of food were running about screaming, creating a domino chain of destruction. One would accidentally run into a window and smash it. Another would accidentally trip on the body and drop the torch they were using to see at night. That torch would light the things inside the window.

What led to a burning building.

Banana guards tried to put it out, but they eventually stayed clear so they didn't get burnt alive. They were simply doing the best to keep everyone calm. They didn’t want their unstable candy mixture going off. Any more fear and the candy people will-

Marceline exploded into the scene by smashing through the candy castle’s walls, her eyes glowing red. An animalistic snarl from a beast rumbled from her throat as she stared at the carnage, “You!” She shot toward them, slamming into the candy streets, “Better not!” She began to grow, her form becoming more terrifying by the second, “Have hurt!” She stands towering tall, a true vampiric monster of the night as the moon silhouetted her, “FINN!”

Suddenly the candy people began exploding. She blinks as she watches the candy people go beyond their fear limit. “Oh. Right. They do that.” She fidgets, a humongous blush on her face as she hurriedly looks for Finn. She finds him crawling towards an alleyway. 

She shrinks back to her normal self, hurriedly whispering loudly to the baby, “Get back here you!” Her hands grab him as the boy releases a squeal of disappointment, his hands reaching out to grab something. She glances up to look and finds the last candy person there, the balloon gumdrop staring at her full of terror. Pop.

His balloons float up and she hears Finn cry, trying to desperately grab them. She calmly reaches up and grabs one by the string with an emotionless expression, dragging it down to Finn’s grasp.

She regains a tiny bit of her smile as Finn squeals at finally getting the red animal, hugging it tightly to his chest with his baby muscles. Then, she begins to rise, deliberately keeping her gaze off the destruction Finn caused. She does, however, glance at the castle. 

She saw Bubblegum on a ledge, glaring at her.

Marceline freezes up as a gasp escapes her, before rocketing home as fast as she could. ‘ _ That’s a few extra years I’ll have to stay clear of Bonnie. _ ’ She glances down at Finn, “Well. She definitely knows about you now dude.” He stares up at her dumbly, causing her to smirk slightly, “But don’t worry, she would have to go through me to harm you.”

She admittedly feels a slight drop in her stomach at her own words, ‘ _ Her kidnapping Finn to experiment on him isn’t my only worry… I don’t think I’m ready. _ ’ “But let’s go before she can meet us, yeah?”

With that, she rockets home as fast as she could. She didn’t waste time playing with Finn, she didn’t detour, she just made a beeline home with the kid, the diapers, and the knowledge Doctor Princess had graced her. She eventually shoots inside her cave, grunting as she forcibly stops herself before she could crash into her home. Then floating to her door, she drops the diapers and inserts her key before practically booting it open, swiftly making her way inside.

She sighs in relief, glad the adventure to the Candy Kingdom didn’t go too bad. It only ended up with the place on fire and several candy people dead. And the realisation that despite what she had said and what she wants, she’s too afraid to see Bonnie again. Not that Bubblegum would want to see her now, ‘ _ And that’s my chance with her dashed, simply because I didn’t keep an eye on Finn. _ ’

She releases a long-suffering groan while placing her kid on the floor, who promptly occupied himself with the red balloon animal. She reaches back outside and grabs the diapers before slamming the door shut and spinning around to face Finn, “So, I guess I’m looking after you for a while.” She mainly says to herself. Not like he can understand her yet. She glances at the diapers, then at the boy in her underwear, “Alright, it's changing time!” 

Who knew diapers were so hard?

Marceline grumbles as she watches the boy crawl away in his new clothing, hoping next time it wouldn’t take so long. Still, she can’t help but regain her smile as Finn starts exploring her abode, and drifts over to the ladder to her room. Shooting inside she locks her gaze with her red bass axe leaning up against the wall and swiftly snatched it up. Playing a few warm-up strums, she drifts back down stairs to keep an eye on Finn, ‘ _ This is my life now? _ ’ 

She watches Finn try to climb atop her hard couch, only to fail on fall over backwards with a startled cry. A small laugh escapes her lips, “A tad slow, but honestly, not bad.” She relaxes, ‘ _ And maybe this may teach me a thing or two. I wasn’t exactly the most mature back then with Bonnie. _ ’ She erases the thought, slightly cursing at herself for returning to her kingdom and resurfacing the memories. “So Finn, what kinda music do you like? Loud or calm?”

He doesn’t respond of course, too busy dragging the balloon animal behind him as he tried to climb inside a plant pot. “Well, I don’t want to deal with ya screaming, so let’s play it safe shall we?” She orders herself and begins a slower tune on her guitar. 

Finn stops to stare at her and the unusual sounds coming from the instrument in her hands, before promptly continuing his adventure. She smiles at him again as she continues playing a small tune. She can’t help it, he reminds her of herself too much back during the war. Hopping around with a smile, exploring every inch of everything he passes by, not caring about the loss of his parents and sudden adoption. 

‘ _ Granted, he isn’t doing it during a war-torn world, but that’s the point of life, right? Making it better for the next generation. _ ’ She blinks, ‘ _ Wow, we’ve actually… come quite far. I guess I was too busy being dead to the world to notice. We’ve actually made things better, and I was a large part with my vampire hunting! _ ’ Her tune picks up hope as lighter and faster notes ring out from her guitar while a ball of pride swells in her chest.

Her mind drifts back to those old days. Of eating the decaying flesh off a dead rat she had found. Or having to watch someone die to goop monsters because you couldn’t save them without risking yourself. Her song makes a dramatic drop back to slower, deeper notes and strums.

She remembered the nights she spent shivering alone. Of course, night meant whenever she felt tired due to there being no sunlight in the nuclear ice age. The world she wondered on her own. The tune from her guitar really slowed down, the vampire only pinging one string at a time and letting it vibrate off.

Then she met the other humans. She had met people full of life despite the bleak world. They reminded the times she spent with Simon, the joy she experienced on the ruined earth just like they did. Her hands speed up, rapidly releasing strum after strum until finally she abruptly halted. 

The bite.

The day she ‘died’. 

She became an eternal being who hungered for blood. She was able to still herself, but in doing so, had lost herself. She became emotionless with time, forced to walk alone forever. Never growing, never maturing, never changing. She became Marceline, the Vampire Queen. A few long, final notes echoed out into the room as she sighed. Then she blinks, shaking her head as she whispered, “And that’s why I’ve got you now Finn. We’re going to help each other.”

‘ _ Wait. Finn. _ ’

She snaps her head up to look around for him, only to find the boy laying down right next to her on the floor, deep asleep. “Huh, guess my tune put you to sleep… or you tuckered yourself out rampaging through the Candy Kingdom.” She theories with a grin, moving as quietly as possible towards her kitchen, planning to devour some red.

Meanwhile, a slime and cat bandit crept towards her house, struggling to remain quiet as their steps echo off the walls. The cat held a scribbled note grasped in his hand, his eyes glued to the vampire’s house. The woman inside had slaughtered all of his friends, his comrades, his pals… and he was not eager to join them.

The duo crept up to the door, the slime person holding a brown fabric bag at the ready to carry the human baby home. Nervously the feline slipped the note under the door, but his knuckles gently tapped against the wood. The door jarred open slightly. The duo blink, before silently pushing it open a bit more. The slime cautiously peeks inside, even flinching back at every slight sound he hears.

The vampire was nowhere in sight.

He steps back and pushes his cat friend forward, who barely catches himself as he stumbles inside the monster’s home. He spins to glare at his teammate while shaking his fist, before looking around the living room he was in, gulping in fear. He eyes the shelf, spotting Simon’s photo, ‘ _ Oh Gob, was that her first prey!? Is she sick enough to capture the image of her first victim!? _ ’ He silently whimpers as he treads forth, trembling with each step he took, ‘ _ Ok. Spot the baby then get the heck out. She won’t see me, she won’t see me, she- _ ’

He spots a slight movement to his left on the couch, causing his entire body to lock up. With practically chattering teeth he slowly crawls his gaze to the source. It was just Finn. His eyes widen, ‘ _ The baby! _ ’ He tip-toes in a storm as he approaches the child, glancing at his teammate for the bag.

The slime chucks it at him, the cat dropping the note casually to the floor to catch it. He promptly opens the bag wide and stares at Finn, who wakes up just in time for the bag to fall atop his head.

Marceline jerks within the fridge as she is pretty sure she heard a squeal from Finn, but after listening for another second at the silence, she shrugs it off. She grabs a tomato and brings it up to her mouth, swiftly sucking the red from it before throwing it away to the bin.

She grabs her bass axe and begins to spin up another song, drifting out of the kitchen with her eyes closed, hoping to get lost in the music. She drifts towards her room as to make sure she doesn’t disturb the little cute ball called Finn on her couch, floating up the ladder with her eyes still closed.

She promptly floats towards her bed and flops down onto it, sighing as she glances about. So she’s got to keep for Finn for a while until Doctor Princess can find a good family for him. She snorts, ‘ _ Fat chance of that. _ ’ She glances at the shattered lamp that her boy had broken earlier, and grunts as she hops up to the cupboard to grab her broom, “Don’t want him getting hurt by it now.”

As she sweeps it all into a neat little pile, a smile begins to grow on her face, ‘ _ After all, he’s gonna be good for me. I can already tell. _ ’ Yet, as she is brushing, her broom hits a stack of albums. Her eyebrow rises, and she leans down to investigate them, picking one of them up. Then her eyes widened, “Whoa! This is, like, one of my first albums ever!” She glances at her repaired CD player, and swooped towards it, swiftly plopping it in, “Man, I can’t even remember what they even were.”

She hovers by it with eagerness for the tunes to stir up her memories. Only for it to blast out heavy metal music about breakups. She scrambles and hurriedly turns it off, her eyes wide as she waits in silence for Finn cries from being woken up. Nothing. She releases a sigh of relief, then grimaces at the CD player, ‘ _... Yeah, that was about the time where things were starting to be recorded again. _ ’

She nervously ejects the disc and puts it back in the case, before gently resting it back where she had found it, ‘ _ But I’ve grown up since then. Right? _ ’ She glances at her hands, ‘ _... Well, maybe more so these last few days. _ ’ She shakes her head and returns to cleaning up the broken lamp, throwing it all at the bin, ‘ _ I need to apologise to PB, that’ll prove I’ve changed… once she cools down about her kingdom being on fire. _ ’

She takes a moment to chuckle at her own unintentional joke, before glancing about the room, nodding in approval. ‘ _ I guess I better get back to watching Finn. And maybe bring him to the bed, it'll be comfier for him. _ ’

She swoops towards the ladder back down, bringing her hands up to her mouth as she calls in a sing-song tune, “Finn~!” She drifts towards the couch on her back, “Come on dude- oh, the front door is open.” She notes, staring at it as it sways on its hinges. “Ah, I’ll sort it out in a second. Finn, I’m-” She then notices the couch is empty, lacking a certain little boy. 

“Eh oh.”

She glances at the front door again.

“... Crumbs.”

She shoots forward, ripping her front door off the hinges by accident but she carelessly chucks it aside to yell out into her cave, “FINN!” She hovers out, her eyes darting all about to try and locate the boy, “Seriously, I wasn’t focused on him for one second. How did he even open-” She redirects her gaze back to her door again, “... I didn’t lock it when I got back. Stupid me being careless!” She huffs and forgets it for now, returning to sweeping her gaze around the cave.

There was no obvious movement from a crawling kid. Her face twists in worry as she floats about, checking behind rocks and stalagmites as she constantly bellows his name. She even checks the pond, gazing inside the cave water for the worst-case scenario. He was still nowhere to be seen.

She groans, swooping towards her house again, “Ok, maybe there’s a secret hiding spot, a hole maybe?” She searches the perimeter. Still nothing. She takes a deep breath while closing her eyes before releasing it and her panic in the form of a sigh, “Alright, maybe he’s still indoors.”

She speedily drifts back inside, scanning the living room. Still no life. But there was a torn piece of paper on the floor where Finn was earlier, something she had missed in her panic.

She raises an eyebrow and reaches down for it, picking it up and discovering words written sloppily on it. “ _ We’re taking the kid because you did not seem to want him. Do not worry, we’ll take good care of him. - Two loving parents. _ ” She blinks. “What.” She reads it again, then a third time, then a fourth, before she mutters, “Did… did DP really find someone that fast?” She squints, ‘ _ If they were able to sneak in and grab Finn without me noticing, then maybe that means they’re skilled enough to avoid PB. It would make sense… but I want to make sure he’s in good hands. _ '

She reaches down to her pocket and pulls out her blue creature that swiftly transforms into her phone. She hurriedly dials Doctor Princess and jams the phone against her ear. She listens to the rings while tapping her foot, before a bleary voice comes through, “Doctor Princess here,” She yawns, going silent again, “I’m trying to sleep, who is it”

“Marceline. Did you find Finn a family that fast?”

“... What? Who- oh right, Finn… no, I don’t think so, but my mind isn’t happy right now so I might not remember. I’m pretty sure I didn’t though-”

Marceline immediately hangs up, her hands shooting up to form an ‘A’ shape atop her mouth and nose, releasing a deep breath out from her nostrils. She then bares her fangs as her eyes go red, “PB!” She looks at the note, “You slimy! Pink! Retarded piece of candy crap! I’m going to tear your head off! You and Your stupid note with ugly writing!... Wait. Ugly writing?” She scans the note again, “... No, wait, Bonnie always had neat, curvy writing. I remember from the tag-'' She stares at the note, “So who else could have done it?”

Her eyes squint in thought, ‘ _ Someone who could sneak well even in a home with creaky floorboards, so a well-versed criminal? _ ’ Red starts to fill her gaze, “Bandits are criminals.” She brings the note up to her face and takes a deep sniff, immediately jolting back with a gag, ‘ _ Alcohol! And it smells exactly like the stuff on the bandits from the other night. _ ’ Her face twitches, and she scrunches up the note. She stares at the door, “Well then. It’s time to hunt some idiots.”

Then a thought seeped out from deeper in her mind, ‘ _ Wait, why am I getting worked up? This is what I wanted earlier, this is what I promised DP. Finn is being taken care of someone else now, he’s no longer my problem. So why do I want to go after him? I could return back to my carefree life like I was doing before him. _ ’ Her claws clench, ripping through the thin paper as a snarl rolls of her tongue, ‘ _ Because, because- because the life of a bandit isn’t good for him! I said I would find him  _ **_good_ ** _ parents! That’s why I want to find him! _ ’

She sighs, her nose turning into a bat’s so she may get their scent better, ‘...  _ Oh who am I kidding? I like the kid. _ ’ She finally admits to herself as she rockets out of her home and exits her cave, hunting down the lingering scent of booze in the air.

The cat bandit meanwhile grunts as he holds the wiggling bag with the baby inside, “Jeez this thing is a struggler!”

His slime companion huffs, “Be glad he isn’t crying. That vampire would have torn us to shreds otherwise.”

The feline grunts as he moves his away from Finn, “Glob yeah. He hasn’t cried but he sure as hell fighting.” Sure enough, the baby was not screaming for help but instead trying to use his tiny baby fist to pathetically whack the armoured cat.

The slime groans, “Well get ready for more of that for the next few years because of our boss’s masterful plan.” He mocks with a chuckle, causing the feline to twitch his tail in annoyance.

He clicks his tongue, “Don’t remind me… Hey, while we’re out here and alone, do you think… do you think we should leave the group? Like drop this kid off and leave?”

The slime raises an eyebrow in a curious manner, “Maybe, but why not take him with us? Using him to get into another, better group?”

His teammate shakes his head, “Nah-” He moves to hold Finn away from his body as he tugged at his fur, “... Not returning with him will only set our group on us. If we drop him off and leave, then we can leave no problem. Though, do you have any group in mind?”

The slime nod, “Yeah, Bandit King’s wife and daughter, remember? They’re growing reputation fast. Well, his wife is. His daughter still is a baby of course. Though I heard she prefers to work solo.” He shrugs, “Can’t help to ask them though. Just got to be careful not to get pricked by her horns.”

The cat looks at Finn again, “You know, this human is actually roughly her kid’s age. Think they could be play mates if we do drop him off?”

The slime rolls his eyes, “You just told me why we can’t do that. Listen to your own explanation doofus.” The response was a simple nod as they stepped up to the crack in the rock face while the slime whistled the password tune. 

They waste no time inside in getting to the Bandit King, who was sitting on his throne with his eyes closed, trying to catch sleep. The slime cups his hands around his mouth to shout, “Sir!” 

He jolts awake, snapping his head about in confusion before locking onto the duo, “Oh, you’re back.” He rumbles out, his eyes resting on the wiggling baby, “And you brought the human child.” He claps his hands together that echo inside the large room, “Well, our newest little fighter here!”

The cat strolls towards him with a grimace as Finn still tries to rip his hair out, “You sure you don’t want to ransom him? He’s been a lot of trouble just holding him, let alone training him!”

The royal barks a laugh as he gets up to meet with his minion, “That’s good! It shows he’s got a fighting spirit, just like I said he would!” He reaches forward and grabs Finn by his side, pinning his wiggling arms against his body as the royal lifts him from the other feline’s grip. Bandit King looks Finn over, “Yeah, yeah I can see it in him. This guy has the spirit to be a mighty warrior.” A deep chuckle rumbles out from him, “Yes, I have great plans for you… boy.” He snaps to his men, “What’s his name again?”

The slime rolls his eyes, “I think that vampire said it was Finn back in the orphanage. Don’t quote me though, we couldn’t get too close without her spotting us so we were listening in through their open windows. She never saw us.”

The royal shrugs, “Eh, ah at worse we can give him a new name! Like Destroyer! Or Terror-atic!”

Desperate to shift the topic off crap names, the feline bandit quickly inquires with a smirk, “Sir, quick question: are you insistent on wanting him because your wife left with  **your** kid? Hmm? Trying to fill some hole? Or one up her-”

The Bandit King stomped his foot forward while snapping Finn close to his chest, a brutal snarl lashing out from his lips, “Watch your tongue, kitten, or I’ll have you torn to shreds and fed to the wolves. I want to do this because I can use him to regain our glory-”

Finn suddenly ripped some hair from the king’s chest, causing a yelp of pain to escape the feline man. The other two can’t help but burst into a laugh as they turned around to walk away, leaving the old man behind to go deeper into the cave. 

He merely grumbles at them before flicking his attention back to Finn, “Alright, I can already see you’re eager to fight. I don’t know your age though, or how far along in your life that would mean.” He turns around and heads towards his throne, “Let’s get you a practice sword.”

He places the kid atop the piles of gold sitting next to his crumbling throne as he fishes around inside of a large chest for the toy he just had earlier. Finn stares at the man beside him, before crawling forward and reaching for the chest’s lid, knocking it forward as hard as he could. It promptly falls down and slams onto the king’s back, causing him to release a grunt of pain.

He throws the lid off him, glaring at the baby while grumbling out, “Man, you really are a troublemaker.” He shakes his head and focuses back on the chest, his eyes widening as a gasp escapes his mouth, “Ah, there it is.” He reaches down and grabs a basic wooden sword, holding it in both hands as he stares at it, “My little princess would have trained with this. She would've loved spending time with me like that.”

He snaps back to reality and faces Finn who was already moving to drop the chest lid on him again. The royal darts back with a chuckle, before presenting the baby with a sword, “Here, let’s begin to teach you to fight.” The curious baby crawled forward and took the fake weapon in his hand, immediately dropping it down to the gold coin floor at its weight. Still, Finn releases a baby grunt while he attempts to rip the weapon up into the air. It twitches before he succeeds in lifting it up until it is above his head, wobbling unsurely as Finn gargled.

A gasp escapes the royal, "That was quick! My little girl chewed on it for an hour before-" Finn gives a baby laugh as he deliberately tumbles forward with the weapon, slamming it into the cat's shoulder. His right eye twitches, "You might be a natural with a sword, but your constant attacking-" Finn gives a yell as he bops the royal again, before laughing as he did it respectively, causing Bandit King to grumble with dead eyes, "For Glod's sake…"

Marceline meanwhile roared in anger as she swung her red axe with all her weight, cutting a tree down that was in her path. Her bat nose is barely able to track her path, the scent of the bandits' beer rapidly disappearing from the world despite doing a beeline at full speed. She needed to find Finn. 

' _ I have to be close, they only had a tiny head start! _ ' Yet she can’t deny it, the scent was going fast. Then she spots a house made of trees to her right. She was about to brush it off, but then actually thinks for a second. ‘ _ A wood nymph? They’re the only ones to build those types of homes. _ ’ She skids to a halt in the air to stare, ‘ _ And they know their forests better than anyone else. _ ’ On her own accord she approaches the home to request help, floating up to the door.

She wastes no time in releasing three rapid knocks against the vines covering the main entrance. Then a bunch of arrows float in her face. She jolts back in slight shock as a tall wood nymph woman glares at her from the depths of her home. With a low threatening voice, she inquires, “What is it you want, monster?”

Marceline bites back a seething remark to instead plead, “Please, I need your help! Some bandits kidnapped my kid and they ran through your forest. Did you see them at any point? Or do you know where their base could be?”

The green woman scowls a little harder, waiting in silence, before cautiously approaching, “I may or may not know where they are. But why should I tell you? Your little prank the other night at that village led to a near forest fire. I just barely was able to stop it.”

The undead girl winces, putting her hands up, “I’m sorry! I- I know better now, and stuff like that won’t be happening again. But please?” She weakly asks again.

The plant woman rolls her eyes but does respond,“... Yes, two bandits came by here earlier. A slime and feline carrying a baby. Didn’t do anything because it’s not my business and I have my own kid to care for. They have a base in the rocks nearby, but where exactly I don’t know.”

Marceline suddenly drops to her knees, the wood nymph’s eyes opening wider in shock as the vampire asks, “Please, help me find them.”

The wood nymph scoffs, “Why? This doesn’t concern me.” Marceline gives her a stare. “... Though a rampaging vampire with a vendetta against me could be annoying to deal with.” She floats her arrows back into her hand as Marceline releases a sigh of joy, causing the green woman to squint, “We need a trail if we want this done quickly. I don’t want to leave my kid for too long.”

Marceline presents the note, “It stinks of alcohol and so does our kidnappers.” The plant girl steps up to it, grabbing the paper to give it a sniff, before releasing her breath and closing her eyes. They wait in silence for a couple of seconds, before she opens her eyes again, causing Marceline to hesitantly ask, “Well?”

She lifts an arm and points, “That way.” She darts off, leaving Marceline behind to blink in shock, before hurriedly following after her, drifting through the air. They dart between the trees as the expert hunter leads the way, all the while keeping a constant eye on the vampire. 

She hums in thought as she watches Marceline float around everything, “You know, I’ve heard you’re a careless monster.”

The vampire glares at her as she snapped back, “You’re not very good at conversations, are you?”

“... As I was saying, I’m surprised you actually have a kid, let alone worry about it.”

Marceline blushes, “Hey! I adopted him the other night after I found him in your forest! And I’m not a heartless monster, I just… used to care less than others… but I’m trying to get better!”

“... I can tell, you’re already acting better than the rumours say you behave.” She suddenly skids to a halt, “The duo are just ahead.” 

Marceline blinks and turns her attention straight ahead just as she passes by the wood nymph. Sure enough, there were the two bandits staring at her with wide eyes. She crashes into the slime and cat with a surprised yell, the trio grunting as they rolled across the dirt floor. 

She snaps up to face them while releasing an animalistic hiss, the bandits staring at her with horror as they promptly shit themselves. They jump up to run away but Marceline yells to the wood nymph, “Stop them!” She immediately does, dashing in front of them as they skid to a halt.

They spin around and gulp as they watch Marceline float towards them in the dark of the night, gripping her base axe in hand, “Now. Where’s my kid?”

The cat stutters as he lifts his hands in surrender above his head, “W-we thought you didn’t want him, vampire! We thought we should help you by giving him to a caring-” With one swift swoop of her axe, he was promptly chopped in half as his teammate jumped in shock. The blood of his friend now coated his tiny slime form, staring in diabolic terror at his in-two carcass.

Marceline coughs to catch his attention, “I’ll repeat.  **Where. Is. Finn?** ”

The slime practically yells out, “At our fort! The Bandit King wants to train him to be a bandit! We were just leaving him to go join some other group! It’s in the rockface in that direction!” He points somewhere to his right.

Marceline nods with a mischievous smile, “Thanks,” She raises her axe high, “But kidnappers aren’t high on my mercy list.” The slime couldn’t even release a scream before she brought the weapon down on him. 

The wood nymph beside her snorts, “Mercy-less, but understandable. He’s probably robbed hundreds.” She stares at the vampire, “I think you have it from here. I have to go because the forest is warning me of a flame baby torching everything nearby. Once you’ve got your kid, come find me back in my house. Maybe we can arrange a playdate for them together.” With that, the apparent mother slipped away into the trees.

Marceline blinked. ‘ _ Well, she was weird. _ ’ She glances at her axe, ‘ _... But I better not annoy her. _ ’ She puts the weapon away for a moment before rushing in the direction the bandit had pointed, ‘ _... I hope he was telling the truth. _ ’

The Bandit King meanwhile groans in annoyance as he tiredly runs a hand down his face. Finn was still whacking him with the sword, giggling away with every pathetic thump against the king’s leg. He stares down at the kid, growling in annoyance as he reaches down and rips the weapon from his hands, “Alright, until you learn the term ‘friendly fire’ you’re not training.” Finn coos, tears threatening to swell in his eyes before his eyes suddenly widened. With an excited yelp, he latches onto the bandit’s leg and begins biting it.

The king’s eyebrows twitch, but he snaps his attention away when he hears laughter. Some of his bandits were at the entrance to the large room and were sniggering at the display. He promptly flips them off, “Go back to your stations!  **Now** !” They hurried off like scared children, leaving the flustered royal behind just in time for loud bells to start echoing throughout the caves.

He winces, “What the-” His eyes widen while he stands as still as a rock, “The alarm bell!” He then yells with all his soul to his men in the cave fort, “We’re under attack! Fight back!” There was a flurry of movement deeper in the cave as the king picked Finn up and rushed towards the back of the room. He stares at Bandit Princess’s old cot for a moment, before plopping the boy inside and covering it with a blanket. Then, with an excited smirk, he walks towards his gear.

Marceline meanwhile presses her back against the cold, grey rock wall next to the hidden crack that was the cave entrance. The moment she had stepped in there, she was shot at by a huge ballista sitting atop a wall made of sharp logs.

She had seen what looked like the main gate, what were a bunch of logs turned ninety degrees, and was pulled up, while the wall itself went the entire length of the cave entrance. She can hear the thundering footsteps of a whole swarm of reinforcements coming to secure the gate.

She smirks, ‘ _ How nice of them for the warming party. _ ’ She goes invisible and testingly sticks her head back out. There were apparently two ballista, both at opposite ends of the wall. And neither were shooting. Her grin only grows larger as she approaches the barricade with her axe drawn.

She floats right up to the first weapon, ‘ _ I’m invisible, I could just ignore them... _ ’ She flicks her attention to the mass of bandits behind the wall, clutching their weapons in eagerness for violence. How many people have they robbed or murdered?

She lifts her axe up just in time to hear the rock person arming the ballista whisper to his teammate, “Think she ran off?” His response was for her axe to come crashing down atop his head, splitting it into two. Everyone in the cave jumps while the other ballista snaps around to fire at her invisible form.

She darts backwards as the massive spear whizzes past her, using the momentum to twist herself into a spin while holding her instrument out. She lets go of her axe, the weapon becoming visible the moment it leaves her hand as it flies towards the other ballista.

The bandit manning it had a moment for his eyes to go wide before the weapon slammed into it, cutting straight through the ballista and embedding itself in his chest. Marceline wastes no time watching however, instead she flies over the log barricade to descend upon the bandits behind it. She rockets towards an armoured fire elemental holding a flail, growing huge claws from her fingers.

She smashes into him nails first as they sink deep into his chest, piercing straight through his pathetic armour. She however holds his body up and boots him off her claws, sending him flying into the others behind him. She can’t help but smirk at the domino effect, but swiftly changes her attention to the sword swinging towards her from the right.

She ducks to let it swoop over her before jumping up fist first, sending her nails up through his skull. Her left hand meanwhile swipes at the soft throat of an attacking rat person, causing blood to squirt from the wound as he falls to the ground dead. 

Then she rips her right hand free of the dead bandit only to grab it again and throw it in front of her. The body lands at the feet of a charging bear spearman, tripping him up as he hits the ground before her hard. She rears both arms up before shooting them down with her might to impale her nails into his skull.

To her left, the rest of the bandits were just finishing picking themselves up from her first attack. She smirks, doing a quick scan of the three remaining men before charging. 

She targets the lead, a cat person holding two knives. She shifts her arm into a huge singular spike and rams it into him gut-first with all her might. It pierces straight through him and into a water person recovering behind him. 

The last guy is a red person wastes no time in spinning around and fleeing as fast as he can. She pounces at him as he releases a yelp of fear, her fangs immediately sinking into his neck and beginning to drain him dry. He could only scream for a second before his body went grey and lifeless, Marceline pulling back with a sigh. 

She cautiously stares at the path ahead, before turning around and floating towards her axe, becoming visible again while she was at it. She finds it embedded in the body of the man in control of the ballista, discovering him to be another cat person. She raises an eye as she tears her weapon free from the corpse, ‘ _ There’s been a lot of cat guys so far. _ ’ She notes casually, flipping her axe in her hands as she progresses deeper into the bandit fortress.

She begins to float down the winding paths cave as silently as possible, listening for reinforcements. Yet, it was eerily quiet. She enters a smallish room, finding some books and notes scattered about, ‘ _ Alright, I either killed them all at the entrance, or they’re planning a trap. _ ’

She progresses deeper until she enters a largish room, scattered with tents and structures. A massive pool of water sat in the middle of the room that reflects the hundred or so torches lighting the room up.

She snorts, choking on the smell of smoke from the torches, ‘ _ Alright, this seems to be the living quarters. _ ’ She hesitantly moves forward, clutching her axe tightly as she scans the room. Her gaze lingers on a bright forge, whose fire was still practically roaring. Just in time to get a knife in the back. 

She gasps before slamming her head backwards with all her might, her skull smashing with her assailment. All around her she hears cries as warriors spring out from the tents, causing her to hurriedly reach back and grab the knife currently embedded in her spine. 

With a feral hiss she rips it free and throws it at a fire elemental coming towards her. He blocks the attack with a shield but she was already charging forward with her axe. With a brutal side swing, she smashes right through his shield and lets her blade sink into his soft side. He goes out, crumbling to ash as the others practically jump atop her.

She uses her positioning to continue her swing, quickly doing a full spin to force her attackers back. An archer far out releases an arrow however, the attack whizzing through the air until it slams into her shoulder, digging into her body with a grotesque squelch.

She ignores the pain to instead lift her axe high above her head and leap at a bandit in front of her. She slams her heavy weapon down onto his head, then snaps her left arm out behind her. She shifts her hand into a spike just in time to have a bandit impale himself through the chest on her. The others rush to her again while her hands were preoccupied, causing her to hiss.

She hurriedly tries to flee her awkward position, shooting straight up with her foes bodies still stuck to her weapon. She does a spin just a few meters above their heads, the bodies flying off and into their former friends below.

The impacts cause two small groups to fall to the floor stunned. They were her next prey. She swiftly dodges an arrow before shooting towards the nearest group just to her left, her axe held high above her head. She slams down with such force that a cloud of rock and dust is flung up around her. Her axe easily cuts through three bodies, severing them completely in two.

A survivor tries to crawl out from the pile as her weapon barely missed him, but she jumps up and brutally stomps him in the head. Then a sword swoops through her middle. Her eyes go wide for a second before she simply regenerates back together.

Growling she spins around her whole body with her axe outstretched, slicing the heavy weapon straight through the skull of her assailant. The sight made the others back off for a brief moment, not expecting the regen. It’s not like anyone has seen her fight for a hundred years. Someone then yells out, “Aim for her heart!” And Marceline locks onto him to her right.

With a confident grin she whips her axe up diagonally with one hand, before bringing it down onto the person in front of her. She carries the momentum as her bass goes right through him, using it to spin around and cut upwards into a foe flanking her.

The swing throws her into the air as she floats above the group, spinning around to face the forces as she rears her axe arm back. She spots the one who had said to aim for her heart. She chucks her weapon at him, the axe spinning in the air before it slams into his chest. With a smug smirk she transforms her hands into claws as long as swords.

Then descends upon the remaining bandits.

She slams into the horde and starts savagely slashing as blood fills the air. Screams of pain echo out as she rends flesh, the woman pouncing from one victim to another. An arrow shoots towards her, but she swats it out of the air, releasing a snarl at the constant annoyance.

The archer in the distance realises he is in deep shit on the other side of the horde and prepares to merge into the group for safety. Marceline rears her arm back, before throwing a straight-forward punch. As her fist flew forwards, it became a sharp spike that grew in size.

A spike several metres long stabbed through the heads of multiple bandits, only stopping when it reached the head of the archer hiding in the back. She smirks in smug pride as everyone jumps back. It took one weak-willed man to look at the bodies littering the place before promptly yelling out while clutching his chest, “Fuck this! Bandit King ain’t worth dying for!” 

He spins on the spot and ran, quickly causing a domino effect as they were several others yell about some stupid plan as they all swiftly fled. Marceline stands there, waiting to see if any stragglers remain as the group flows around her.

No one stuck behind.

She snorts while shifting her arm back to normal, strutting up to her carcass-embedded axe, ‘ _ This Bandit King isn’t very liked then… I wonder if that will mean there will be anyone else- _ ’

A baby's cry echoes through the cave.

Marceline wastes no time and darts towards where the noise came from, disappearing down a cave path as fast as she can. The air whistles in her ears as she perfectly flies around every bend and curve, her teeth bared and hands clenched around her axe.

She suddenly comes face to face with a weak wooden barricade. She smashes through it with her body, splinters of wood flying everywhere as she bursts into a large chamber. Her eyes lock onto the only visible soul in the room, the bandit leader she had seen on the night she found Finn. 

He wasn’t wearing any armour, just his ragged white cloths like a mummy, patches revealing his hairless skin below. In his hands though were two weapons though: a sword and a staff. The sword was a bright, shiny silver with a dark red ornate wood handle, with the pummel having a blue gem with what appears to be a swirling storm inside. The staff was long and golden, though incredibly simple, with only a bluish-pink crystal sitting on the top.

Her foe grumbles, barely heard by the undead girl, “Well, I thought that would have held you back for at least one second, but apparently not.”

She snorts while brushing some sharp pieces of wood off her form, any prick wounds healing nearly instantly. She floats towards the feline, “So you’re ‘Bandit King’? Where’s Finn?” She immediately asks, causing a laugh to roll out of the ageing man.

He swiftly responds, “The little guy is at the back.” His voice deepens, “But he’s staying here. If I had to guess, you just killed all my men?”

She scoffs as she does a quick strum on her guitar, “Those were men? I thought they were gnats dude. A killed, like, a whole bunch then the rest fled.” She smirks, “You can’t be a good leader if they simply all left you to dry like that.”

He scoffs, “Fucking funny. No, it’s because you’re right, those guys were pathetic.” He cracks his neck from side to side, before gradually making his way towards her, his staff hand snapping out to grab a bottle from atop his gold pile. “But me? Not so much.”

Marceline laughs, the sound echoing out in the large room as she claps a hand against her forehead, “Ha! A bit full of yourself aren’t you, little dude!?”

He chuckles, “I could say the same, monster. Becoming a singer to be the centre of attention, bringing terror every night with your pranks on some poor people trying to live their lives so they don’t forget about you. How many people have you killed? I murder people for a living, and I’m pretty sure you’ve ended more lives than I have.”

She squints her eyes, “I’m working on fixing that you ding dong. Unlike you, I kinda realised what I’ve been doing is wrong. I was planning to lead Finn away from my sucky life, unlike you.” She points a finger at him, “You plan to lead him down the path of being a tormentor by making him a bandit.” He shrugs and puts down his staff to take a swig of the potion in his hand. She rolls her eyes, “But enough of this. I’m not letting you do that to him, I’m leaving with my kid, be it the easy or the hard way.” She grins smugly, “So what’s your choice dude?”

He finishes his drink, dropping the bottle to the floor to stare at her, “The way I win.” He suddenly snatches up his staff and rockets towards her, his footsteps cracking the floor up.

Her eyes go slightly wide in shock but she quickly recovers just as he descends upon her, throwing up her right fist to sock him in the face. Her fist collides with his chin just as his blade slices off her other arm. The limb goes flying off but quickly regenerates back on, just as the Bandit king’s blade hits the floor hard.

The impact releases a mini shockwave that actually launches Marceline backwards, the startled girl tripping on her own feet and falling onto her back. The royal promptly exploits this by leaping into the air with his blade held above his head. With a yell he descends down atop her as she throws up an arm defensively, shapeshifting it into hardened bone and scales.

The blade strikes her limb and the force pushes her into the rock ground, a grunt of pain escaping her lips as she stares up at the man, “That was a strength potion, wasn’t it old man? Afraid you can’t keep up?”

Her other arm shoots up in the form of a spike to impale his head, but the royal leaps off her to evade. He skids to a halt quiet some distance away as Marceline flips herself into the air floating. He shrugs at her, “If I have it, I might as well use it, vampire.” He bursts forward while doing a massive heavy swoop with his sword.

Marceline snaps her shapeshifted arm up to counter, the limb and blade slamming together hard as a shockwave is released. Her vampiric strength allows her to hold her ground against his increased might, grunting as she shoves his blade to the side to throw his whole body.

The shove pushes him sideways, revealing his back to her as she swung her axe up to cut him in half. The royal however hurriedly stumbles forward to evade, his hand slamming into the ground. He rips up a chunk of rock from the floor and throws it at her head, obliterating it completely in a mist of red.

Her body mindlessly stumbles backwards before she regenerates. Just in time to see the Bandit King about to thrust his blade into her heart. “Whoa!” She yells while slapping the blade to just narrowly miss her.

The royal still had his momentum however and he falls into a shoulder charge that slams into her gut. Blood shoots out her mouth as he carries her to the other side of the room, smashing her hard through the multiple stalagmites before ramming her into the wall. The impact creates a huge crack, but the vampire quickly recovers as adrenaline flows through her.

She pushes both feet against his gut and shoves him off her, the royal skidding back down the path of destruction they had just made. He moves to close the distance again, but she promptly goes invisible.

He blinks, then curses as he defensively slashes in every direction around him. Only for a boulder to come flying towards him. His eyes widen and he desperately leaps to the side to avoid it, hitting the floor with a grunt as the rock smashes behind him. He picks himself up as broken pebbles bounce off him, hissing at some cuts that flying fragments have made on his body.

Marceline smirks at the sight. She rockets toward him just as he climbs onto his feet. She becomes visible with her hands shooting for his throat, the royal staring at her in shock as his own hands snap out to stop her.

Their limbs collide mid-air, wrestling with one another as Marceline laughs. Her body shape shifts to create multiple limbs, all of which are razor-sharp and jab towards the king’s gut. He jumps, using her arms he was holding to vault over behind her. Then with a yell of effort he flings her over him and slams her into the ground. Her grip slackens as the pain of multiple bones shattering inside her overload her mind for a second.

The bandit rips his arm away and goes to stab her in the heart but her shape shifted arms shoot at him with their pointed ends. He is forced to retreat, slashing and dashing away at the limbs as they jab at him. Each one he destroys regenerates nearly a second later, causing him to growl.

The next one that shoots for him he avoids by darting to the side before grabbing it firmly, crushing it in his grip as he aggressively tugs on it. He yanks Marceline towards him, who had now finished healing and was already in the air. She uses the momentum of his pull to swing up her axe with all her might. He counter-slashes downwards with his sword just in time for the weapons to clash together, releasing a wave of sparks.

The force of the attacks slams their weapons into the ground at their feet, their strength shattering it. Huge chunks of rock shoot up into their faces as they both jump back and cover their eyes. Marceline promptly goes invisible, and by the time Bandit King has recovered, she is gone.

He closes his eyes, his feline ears twitching. He suddenly lunges for her, the vampire becoming a small bat to barely avoid his sword. He goes to take a chomp out of her when he hears the flap of her wings but instead gets a fist to the face. He rears back stunned as she moves in and goes for a swift kill, but his staff’s crystal glows.

A thick yellow beam strikes Marceline, making her scream in pain as she is sent flying away and into the cave wall. Her body smokes and is badly burnt, but it quickly heals as the woman hisses, ‘ _ That staff is enchanted! _ ’ It glows again and fires another beam, the vampire hurriedly diving behind a stalagmite to her right, letting it take the blow instead.

She goes invisible and floats again, peeking out to stare at the Bandit King approach, ‘ _ How did he find- my breathing. _ ’ She snorts, ‘ _ Fucking cat ears. _ ’ She glances about and spots a nearby broken tip of stalagmite. Swiftly grabbing it, she feels its weight by bouncing it in her hand, before throwing with all her might at Bandit King.

His sword barely blocks it in time, the rock breaking upon his blade and breaking around him. He pants with wide eyes at the close call, not expecting a stone to come at his head at the speed of a bullet. Marceline smirks in her invisible form.

That is, of course, until the royal fired his staff above her. She snaps her head up at the ceiling, finding him destroying multiple stalactites. She releases a yell of worry as she shoots away from the falling sharp rocks nearly staking her, her foe’s voice yelling out, “I was hoping to not use this, monster. But, if I must, I must.”

She squints as she hides in the sea of sharp rocks around her, ‘ _ Ok, is he trying to taunt me to come out or what? _ ’ She peeks out at him again, finding him rushing towards her general location, blasting his staff at the roof again.

She snarls as she darts out to avoid more falling rocks, rushing the Bandit King. The sound of destruction hides her breath as she slashes at his chest with her axe. It just barely bounces off his sword luckily in the way. However, it does leave a huge cut in his chest and sends him flying backwards with a yell of pain.

She roars forward to finish it, leaping into the air with her axe over her head, but he rolls to avoid her. He scrambles up, blasting his staff at where he just was in hopes of hitting her, but she was already long gone. The royal looks down at his wound, watching his precious blood leak from his body and staining his hand. 

Marceline glides forward silently to get the jump on him, but he suddenly yells as he wacks his fist against his wound. Blood splurts out and covers his hand, what he then flung out in an arc in front of him.

The ring of blood flies forth, and where it hits Marceline, it goes invisible with the rest of her body. And doesn’t hit the floor behind her like the rest did. Her eyes had only a chance to go wide before the royal was upon her, thrusting his sword at her chest. She whacks it aside as best as she could but it still ends up in shoulder as she releases a yelp of pain. 

She counters by slamming her hand with claws into the royal’s gut, sinking it deep into his flesh. A bloody grunt shoots out his mouth, splattering her on the face as she jolts back in disgust as it nearly goes in her eyes. He yells in her face as he swings both his feet up and presses them against her gut so he may launch them apart.

He hits the floor and skids, but hurriedly glances up to face her again, but she is still invisible, causing him to growl, “Oh for-” He cuts himself off to lift his staff up and blast out another beam above them. He was random with his attack, causing rocks and broken boulders to fall sporadically around the room.

Marceline grimaces as she swoops from side to side to avoid the danger, ‘ _ Got to stop him or one of these are going to get lucky. _ ’ She focuses on him again, ‘ _ Super-strength… but not durability. He won’t risk dropping one on his head. _ ’

With a burst of speed, she arcs over to him, darting left and right to avoid falling stalactites. She reaches the royal and swings her axe to cut him in half. His cat ears twitch and he barely lifts his sword in time to deflect it. She deliberately lets her weapon fly away so she may use both hands to grab his own, smirking evilly as she holds his clenched fists. 

Then, she increases the pressure.

He gasps as his bones inside his hand feel like they were about to shatter as he attempts to boot her off, but misses her invisible legs. She makes multiple snakes form from her body, all reaching down to snap and bite at his flesh, sinking their fangs into his body. He gasps in pain as they tear at him before he attempts to bite her face off.

But he gets a mouthful of scales.

His teeth nearly shatter as he reals back from biting her shoulder while she releases an amused laugh, “Oh right, you still can’t see me.” She becomes visible, revealing her whole form covered in hardened dark grey scales, “Sorry, but I do the biting around here.” She flashes her fangs before moving forward to bite his neck and finish the fight off.

He yells as he stomps his feet down hard onto the ground and launches them both into the air. Marceline could only release a startled yelp before she was slammed head first into the ceiling. 

She could practically feel her skull shutter at the blunt impacts as she flops briefly unconscious in his arms, but her rapid regeneration kicks into overdrive. Bandit King smirks and yanks her dazed form above his head, before throwing the vampire with a yell towards a group of stalagmites.

Marceline groans as she swiftly recovers, just in time to see what she was flying towards. She releases a startled scream of heart-crushing terror as she desperately skids to a halt. She stops just inches above them. She admittedly stares at them for a second at how close she was to getting staked on the stones.

But then she hears a whoosh. 

She spins around to only get slammed by a wind blast upwards. The royal foe had luckily already landed, so she wasn’t slammed downwards into the spikes she had just barely avoided. 

She slams into the ceiling then another wave of wind smashed into her to send her flying. Bandit King swings his now glowing sword again and again, smacking her around the cavern as her vision goes blurry. Each incredibly violent impact she endures shatter some of her bones, her body flopping in the wind.

Each collision into a wall, stalactite, or the ceiling destroys any repair her regeneration was making, her powers struggling to keep up. Then the onslaught stops as she falls to the floor with a hard smack, her vision blurred and filled with red from blood.

She begins to attempt to crawl, when she catches a blob of movement through her damaged eyes. It was the Bandit King shooting towards her with a huge lunge. 

She yells as she throws up her broken arms in an attempt to block the long shiny blob that was his sword. The blade plunges down her arm, splitting it practically in half but halting it from hitting her heart. Her other hand grabs his staff and slams it into the ground with her vampiric might, lodging it in the floor.

The bandit royal grunts as he pushes with all his bodily might upon his blade, trying to push his blade through her arm. Her limb slowly breaks apart as she attempts to push back with all her might, hoping her other limbs can heal in time.

Then she hears Finn cry. The duo snap their heads to the left to stare at the boy just barely seen atop Bandit King’s gold pile. 

A fire grows inside the vampire. She screams out as her body not only rapidly regenerates, but transforms as well. Bandit King has only a moment to look petrified before Marceline explodes under him into her monster bat form.

Her blood boils as she stares at the puny royal sitting atop her, who hurriedly yanks his sword out of her arm to retreat. She screams in rage as she swipes at him with her massive claws while he leaps away backward, leading to her slashing his leg. Blood squirts out everywhere from the deep cuts as the royal hisses.

He skids to a halt a short distance away to blast his staff at his leg, using the laser beam to cauterize the wound. She storms straight for him with earth shaking steps, causing him to panic and drop his weapons to grab a nearby boulder. 

Grunting, he lifts the rock nearly Marceline’s size up before throwing it at her with all his might. It arcs straight for her, causing her to roar as she throws her right fist straight at it. She punches straight through, the boulder shattering around her body as her clenched hand rockets straight for the startled king.

She punches his entire body, though her blow was weakened by the boulder busting. Still, it had enough power to send the royal flying backwards, slamming into a stalagmite and flopping to the ground.

Marceline pounces at him, slapping him with one of her claws to ragdoll him across the floor before lunging for him again. He rolls face up and throws up his arms to catch her own as they collide. They wrestle, Bandit King just barely being able to resist her giant form as she laughs in his face, soaking in his terrified expression.

Then his strength suddenly gives out.

His arms buckle instantly as she presses them painfully against the floor, pinning the royal to the ground. Marceline blinks, before releasing a giggle, “What’s the matter? Having trouble keeping it up with a girl like me? Haven’t got another strength potion to drink?” She taunts, before raising an arm up to rip his guts out.

The arm she was no longer pinning snaps up, staff in hand. It glows but before it could do anything her claws smash into it. With an ear ringing screech it shatters at her attack, several fragments of the shattered weapon flying everywhere.

Marceline blinks but swiftly goes to attack again before Bandit King could find another way to save himself. The royal, however, uses his now spare hand to grab his sword from his other pinned arm and takes a swing at her. A blast of wind slams into her form causing her to lift up only a little bit, but it was enough for her foe to rip his arm free from under her arm.

He scrambles away from her, swinging his sword at her legs to release another blast to stumble her. That wasn’t really going to stop her. She bounds after him like a cat, swiping and slashing at his agile form while he counter-attacks. 

She swoops diagonally downwards with her right claw but he slides under her arm. Spinning around he swings another wave of wind at her limb as it flies away from him. It causes her attack to have more momentum and promptly spin her body, presenting her back to him. He yells behind her as he jumps onto her, Marceline immediately reaching backwards to try and grab him.

He plunges his sword into her back, trying to reach her heart from behind but she gets a solid hold on him. With a yell she rips him around in front of her, preparing to chomp on his tiny form in her hands. However the feline swings his sword to slam the wind in her face like a massive punch. 

While she was very briefly stummed, he stabs his sword into her hand, causing a yelp of pain to escape her as she drops him. He runs away from her, finding some rocks that he had dropped earlier, grabbing the tip of a fallen stalactite while the vampire rubs her hand. Making the rock jump in his hand he turns to face her towering form as she stares down at him.

She lunges forward for him claws first, but the cat barely jumps back to avoid the attack. Her nails sink into the rock floor, causing him to jump on her arm and spring at her chest. Only for a tendril to shoot out from her stomach and wrap around her foe, before slamming him into the ground.

Marceline lifts her leg up to stomp on the groaning Bandit King, but he rolls out of the way, swinging his sword up at her. A blast of wind stumbles her backwards towards the royal’s throne due to her not being prepared for the attack. 

She glances behind her at the royal’s pile, spotting a net gun. Grabbing it, she swung around with the tiny weapon for her size and fired at Bandit King. It only clips her target, slamming into his stake arm with enough force to throw the royal to the ground, his feet flying forward out from under him. 

The impact causes his arm to hit the floor hard, the tip of his makeshift stalactite weapon snapping off with an echoing crack. She charges him again, throwing the net gun at his scrambling form to stun the man as it breaks upon his back. His groans fill her ears as she watches some blood drool from his mouth and leak out of some cuts on his spine.

He gets the net off his hand just as she reaches him, the frantic royal throwing it at her legs in hope of tripping her up. She stumbles for less than a moment before she grabs the pesty rope web and rips it off her. 

She turns her gaze up to find Bandit King making a dash for the cave exit, a snarl escaping her clenched teeth and fangs, “Oh no you don’t!” She hurriedly snaps her head about and locks her burning gaze on a large boulder that fell from the ceiling earlier. She rushes to it and grabs the huge rock the same size as her, groaning in effort as she lifts it above her.

With a scream of hatred she chucks the boulder, watching it arc through the air before smashing into the chamber’s exit. The royal skids to a halt, staring at the pile of broken rock that now blocks his escape, causing him to slowly turn to face her.

She can’t help hide her toothy grin.

He begins to frantically swing his sword about, sending huge blasts of wind at the ceiling above. The blows break stalactites from the spots, sending them tumbling to the floor like bombs. Marceline snorts in frustration and charges ahead regardless, making a bee-line for her foe.

She keeps her eyes to the sky, bounding from side to side to avoid the falling rocks as the fear of a cave-in flashes in her mind. She had to stop Bandit King now. She spots her red axe discarded from earlier, laying on its side on the floor. She grabs it with her right hand, before spinning her whole body then releasing it with a yell.

It spins through the air, before smashing into the royal’s blade, shattering it with an ear-piercing screech. While he looks at it flabbergasted, she charges forward with an arm drawn back, hand open.

When he turns his gaze back to her, she is upon him and she snaps her arm out, grabbing him in a crushing grip. Lifting him up to her snarling face, soaking in the scared expression he had, before shapeshifting once more. She returns back to her normal form but her arms become long tendrils that completely wrap around and tie Bandit King up.

She leans in close to his face and immediately shaky words sprout from his lips, “P-please! Let me go! You can have Finn, you’ll never see me again!” She doesn’t budge, causing a whimper to escape his shivering form, his feline ears flopping down atop his head, “I’m sorry, I was just a father who wanted to get back at my wife and daughter for leaving me!”

She scoffs, “Yeah right.” She bares her fangs, “You probably stole her from some village you pillaged. If she had left you,” she starts to lean towards his neck as he wiggles in her grip, “Then she will be happier with you gone.” Yet just as she was about to bite Bandit King and suck him dry, she spots Finn in the corner of her eyes, slowly crawling towards her while cooing. She hesitates, ‘ _ What if this makes him scared of me? _ ’ That would break her heart. She begins to pull her fangs back ‘ _... and I’m not a monstrous vampire, I’ve still got my humanity. _ ’

She prepares to knock the royal out somehow but blinks when she finds him already out cold. ‘ _ I guess fear got to him. _ ’ She rises off atop him, letting her tendril arms unwrap and return back to normal before turning to face Finn. He was still making his way to her as she can’t help but smile, opening her arms to scoop him up into a hug, “Heh, I-” He immediately chews her hair, causing her to blink, “... It’s good to have you back.” She admits.

She takes a moment, holding him close to her undead heart as she releases a sigh and closes her eyes. There was dead silence in the cave, just her and her trouble-making kid as he clung to her body. “... Yeah… yeah it’s definitely good to have you back.” She opens her eyes and boops him on the nose, causing Finn to laugh while she grinned stupidly at the boy in her arms.

She turns to face the cave exit that she had blocked earlier, grimacing as she makes her way over, “Hold on though dude, I have to dig us out first.” She spots a large stalagmite and places him behind it, “Now stay there, I don’t want you freaking out.” Making sure it obscured his view of the entrance, she transformed back into her huge monstrous form and promptly started clawing away at the debris.

Yet, as she pierced through the broken rock and into the tunnel on the other side, a small laugh causes her to jolt. She snaps her head down to stare at Finn resting a hand on her leg, attempting to stand on some very wobbly legs. He manages to hold himself up as he stares up at her with joy, causing her to blink. Then smile. She grabs him in one hand, lifting him up to her face, “Hey man, well done!” She then remains silent, staring at the ball of joy in her hand.

“You know what, Finn? After all this trouble to get to you, it would be a bit silly to just give you away now, wouldn’t it?” She stares deeply into his eyes, “Wanna live with me, hero boy?”

A laugh was his response. Her grin grew larger. He probably couldn’t understand her, but she took the answer as a yes. She turns to face Bandit King’s throne. Or more accurately, all the gold sitting around it. ‘ _ That should be more than enough to get everything I need for Finn. _ ’ She glances at Finn, returning to normal while walking to her red axe, “Well then? Let’s go home!”

By the next few days, Bandit King was stewing in a cell, but when guards had searched his base, all his loot was mysteriously gone.

Marceline’s house was decked out with some toys, and anything sharp or dangerous was moved out of reach of Finn’s grasp. The old cot that Bandit King had rested next to the vampire's bed, with Marceline already making some mental plans to make a room for Finn. She had a whole array of guitars at the ready so she may teach her little ball of hope her favourite hobby as soon as she could. She has noticed that he seems to like the training wooden sword that she had found at the Bandit King's gold pile more than any guitar though.

However, as of right now neither occupants were currently inside the warm abode. 

They were both outside at her cave entrance, silhouetted by the bright full moon as they sat facing one another. Except Marceline was in her huge monstrous bat form, towering over Finn while her hands covering her face. “Where did mummy go~?” She opens her hands to reveal her smiling face, “Peek-a-boo!” A holy ring of a baby’s laugh echoed into the night as Marceline smiled, the aching loneliness in her heart from the nights before now gone.

**Sorry this took so long everyone. As I said I am trying a new writing style so let me know how good/bad this is. Seriously, do it, if it is bad then I don’t want to waste my time writing a poor style. Also, life has gotten busy for me, so writing will definitely take a while (plus I just had an interview so I might have a job soon).**

**This story came from a suggestion long ago by one of my readers. If you're reading this (you know who you are), here it is.**

**As promised, after this I shall go back to writing Incrementum. Thank you to everyone who has been waiting patiently, I’m coming home to my pride story!**


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